Lee Jae Myung picks 6 more ministers, senior aides for civil affairs, social cohesion
President Lee Jae Myung on Sunday nominated six ministers, including Koo Yun-cheol, a former vice finance minister, to head the Finance Ministry, and former head of the disease control agency Jeong Eun-kyeong as health minister.
The list also included Rep. Jung Sung-ho for justice minister and Rep. Yun Ho-jung for interior minister. Both lawmakers are serving their fifth terms in the National Assembly.
Doosan Enerbility CEO Kim Jung-kwan was nominated as industry minister, while Lee Jin-sook, former president of Chungnam National University, was tapped for education minister.
President Lee also appointed former prosecutor Bong Wook as senior civil affairs secretary, Jeon Seong-hwan as senior secretary for public engagement and social cohesion, and Kim Kyoung-soo, the former governor of South Gyeongsang Province as the head of the Presidential Committee for Decentralization and Balanced Development.
Koo Yoon-cheol, a visiting professor of economics at Seoul National University, was nominated as minister of finance, in a rare recruitment from academia in Lee's Cabinet.
The five-time Rep. Jung Sung-ho is one of Lee's closest allies in the Democratic Party. Jung as minister of justice is expected to carry out the Lee administration's key policy of overhauling the country's criminal justice system, centering on prosecution reform.
Rep. Yun Ho-jung, a five-time Democratic Party lawmaker who was a top official in Lee's campaign team, was named minister of interior and safety.
Jeong Eun-kyeong, who steered Korea's response to COVID-19 as the chief of the main disease control agency, was tapped as minister of health and welfare. Jeong retired from public office and worked as an infectious disease researcher at the Seoul National University Hospital before joining Lee's presidential campaign in April.
Kim Jung-kwan, currently the president of Doosan Enerbility who served as an official at the Finance Ministry until 2018, was chosen as minister of trade, industry and energy.
Kim Kyoung-soo, the former governor of South Gyeongsang Province, ran in the Democratic Party primary for presidential candidate against Lee. Kim immediately endorsed Lee after losing the primary. Kim would handle the president's policies for non-Seoul metropolitan areas, at a newly launched office named the Presidential Committee for Decentralization and Balanced Development.
Lee has decided to keep another one of Yoon's ministers, by having the current Minister of Food and Drug Safety Oh Yu-Kyoung remain in office. Lee also kept Minister of Agriculture Song Mi-ryung, who was appointed by Yoon.
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