Minister Nominations
On February 17, President-elect Park Geun-hye nominated Hyun Oh-suk, head of the Korea Development Institute, as the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Minister of Strategy and Finance and picked out persons to be in charge of 10 more ministries during her term. She had announced nominees for six other ministries on February 13 and finished forming her government at this time before the confirmation hearing scheduled for February 25.
Venture entrepreneur Kim Jong-hoon, who is heading Alcatel Lucent Bell Labs, has been nominated as the Minister of Creative Science for Future, Korean Association of North Korean Studies chairman Ryu Kil-jae as the Minister of Unification, a third-time lawmaker and Saenuri Party member Jin Young as the Minister of Health and Welfare, too.
The position of the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs is reinstated for the first time in five years to administer economic affairs in general. Its nominee Hyun Oh-suk, after passing the 14th Public Administration Examination, has worked for the Economy Planning Board and served as a World Bank economist and the chief of the Economic Policy Bureau of the Ministry of Finance and Economy, which is the predecessor of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.
The Ministry of Creative Science for Future is scheduled to cover the future development of scientific and information communications technologies down the road. Its nominee Kim Jong-hoon, a son of an immigrant to the United States, had established a venture firm named Yurie Systems back in 1992 and developed the military communications equipment of ATM six years later before selling his company to Lucent Technologies at US$1 billion in the same year.
Minister of Unification Ryu Kil-jae, in the meantime, is a North Korea specialist, who has been engaged in the research field for close to three decades.