Moon completes reshuffle by naming two new economic secretaries

From left: Kim Gi-pyo, appointed Wednesday to presidential secretary for anti-corruption; Lee Hyong-il, secretary for economic policy; and Kim Jeong-won, secretary for digital innovation. [YONHAP]

President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday named two new economic secretaries, completing the shakeup of the Blue House policy office triggered by an abrupt sacking of his policy czar.

Moon named Deputy Finance Minister Lee Hyong-il as secretary for economic policy, according to a press release from presidential spokesman Kang Min-seok.

Kim Jeong-won, information and communication policy director at the Ministry of Science and ICT, was named the secretary for digital innovation.

Moon took just two days to complete the reshuffle of economic aides in the aftermath of firing Kim Sang-jo from his position of policy chief on Monday. Kim was fired for having circumvented new rent control laws by hiking the rent on a property two days before the laws went into effect.

After prompting Senior Secretary for Economic Affairs Lee Ho-seung to succeed Kim immediately after firing him, Moon wasted no time in filling other vacancies in the Blue House’s policy office and in the Finance Ministry for two consecutive days. When Moon named new economic aides including two vice ministers of finance on Monday, Kang said the appointments were intended to push forward pending economic projects without any disturbance.

Moon also named a former prosecutor as his new anti-corruption secretary on Wednesday. According to Kang, Moon appointed Kim Gi-pyo, a prosecutor-turned-lawyer, to the post.

Kim’s appointment as the new anti-corruption secretary was a follow-up of replacing the senior presidential secretary for civil affairs earlier this month. Moon named Kim Jin-kook as the new senior presidential secretary for civil affairs on March 4, accepting the outstanding resignation of Shin Hyun-soo.

Shin, a former prosecutor appointed to the post on Jan. 1, offered to step down just six weeks into the job, as he failed to mediate the discord between Justice Minister Park Beom-kye and then-Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl. On the same day, Yoon also resigned.

Kim served as the prosecutor until 2014. He once served in a powerful special investigation unit of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office.

After leaving the prosecution, Kim worked as a lawyer, and one of his clients was Lee Sang-deuk, elder brother of former President Lee Myung-bak. Kim took the presidential brother’s corruption case in 2015.

While replacing the anti-corruption secretary, Moon kept other members in the office of the senior presidential secretary for civil affairs. Lee Gwang-cheol, secretary for civil affairs and justice, and Kim Young-sik, secretary for legal affairs, were not replaced.

BY SER MYO-JA [ser.myoja@joongang.co.kr]