Moon replaces 4 vice ministers ahead of April 15 elections

The office of President Moon Jae-in announced the replacement of four vice ministers and two of Moon’s secretaries in a partial shake-up Monday as his administration nears its third anniversary.

It followed the resignation of some senior officials seeking to run in the April 15 general elections, affecting the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the National Agency for Administrative City Construction. Moon picked sitting or former career civil servants in his latest major personnel changes.

Oh Yeong-woo, chief of policy planning at the Culture Ministry, has been promoted to the first vice minister position.

Hong Jeong-ki, former head of the Environment Ministry’s Han River basin environmental office, has been named as the number two official at the ministry.

Kang Sung-cheon, secretary to Moon for industry and trade policy, has been tapped as vice minister of SMEs and startups. The president appointed Lee Mun-ki, who is in charge of the housing policy at Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, as new chief of the Administrative City Construction Agency based in Sejong.

Yu Jeoung-yeol, who worked as industrial policy chief at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, will succeed Kang for the Blue House job.

Lee Nam-gu, senior official at the Board of Audit and Inspection of Korea, has been chosen to serve as presidential secretary for civil service discipline, with Choe Kang-wook having offered to step down last week.

Yonhap