BOK governor to be named March 23

The Blue House will name the new Bank of Korea governor at the cabinet meeting on March 23.

The current chief of the central bank, Lee Seong-tae, was appointed during the Roh Moo-hyun administration and his term ends on March 31.

Blue House spokesman Park Sun-kyoo said yesterday that discussions have begun on naming a successor.

“Since we are having a cabinet meeting on March 23, the selection should be readied by the previous day,” said Park. “Verification is currently ongoing with a pool of a few selected candidates. I believe the rough idea on who the successor is will be available in two or three days.”

Under the law governing the Bank of Korea, the president appoints the central bank’s governor with the approval of the cabinet.

The governor’s term spans four years.

While the spokesman made no official mention of the candidates’ names, sources at the Blue House and in the Lee administration said Euh Yoon-dae, head of the National Branding Commission, and Kim Choong-soo, Korea’s ambassador to the OECD, are under serious review.

Euh served as a member of the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee from 1992 to 1995 and as the founding head of the Korea Center for International Finance in 1999.

Kim was the first senior secretary for economic affairs for the Lee Blue House, but stepped down after a few months in 2008 in the aftermath of the anti-government protests over U.S. beef imports.

The possibility of appointing Financial Supervisory Service Governor Kim Jong-chang to head the central bank is also being discussed, sources said.

While some in the media speculated that Kang Man-soo, former finance minister and the current special economic adviser to the president, is also being considered, sources said that possibility is unlikely.

By Ser Myo-ja [myoja@joongang.co.kr]