Park nominates Choi Mun-kee as minister of future planning and science

President Park Geun-hye nominated Choi Mun-kee, a telecommunications technology expert, as minister of future planning and science, the Blue House announced yesterday.

Choi, 61, is a management science professor at KAIST, the country’s top technical institute, and he served as president of the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, the largest government funded research institute, from 2006 to 2009.

A native of North Gyeongsang and a graduate of Seoul National University, Choi joined the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute in 1978 as a researcher and built up a career of more than two decades of research and development. He left the institute to teach at that Information and Communications University, now called KAIST-ICC, in 1999.

Presidential spokesman Yoon Chang-jung said yesterday that Choi’s lifelong career in the industry was the reason Park to choose him to lead her pet project, the new future planning and science ministry. As soon as the stalled government restructuring bills are cleared in the National Assembly, the Blue House will ask the legislature to arrange a confirmation hearing for Choi, Yoon said.

President Park also nominated Han Man-soo, professor of law at the Ewha Womans University, as head of the Fair Trade Commission. Yoon said the Blue House will ask the legislature for a confirmation hearing next week.

Je Jeong-boo, vice minister of the Ministry of Government Legislation, was promoted to minister, while Park retained Park Sung-choon, minister of patriots and veterans affairs, to continue in that post.

Chung Seung, former vice minister for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, was named to head the Korea Food and Drug Administration.

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