Yoon close to picking FSC, NTS chiefs
Published: 11 May. 2022, 15:35
Updated: 11 May. 2022, 16:39
Like many people on Yoon’s economic team, Kim is a former finance bureaucrat.
Kim Chang-ki is expected to head the National Tax Service (NTS). He was head of the NTS’s Busan office,
Yoon is getting closer to completing his economic team, which includes Finance Minister Choo Kyoung-ho as well as economic secretary Choi Sang-mok.
According to sources, official announcements on the two appointments are expected later this week.
Kim Joo-hyun majored in economics at Seoul National University and passed the civil servant exam in 1981, the same year as Finance Minister Choo.
Kim started in the Finance Ministry and worked at the FSC before serving as president of the state-owned Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation.
He has been the chairman of the Credit Finance Association, since 2019.
Kim is said to excel in risk management, useful skills as Korea faces the triple threat of high inflation, rising interest rates and a weakening won.
Kim helped stabilize volatile markets as head of the financial policy department at the FSC during the global financial meltdown between 2008 and 2009.
He led the privatization of Woori Financial Group as president of the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation, which was the largest stakeholder.
“Kim is an expert with deep knowledge of debt problems and risk management as we confronted the savings banks [insolvency] crisis [in 2011] when he was working at the FSC,” said an official in the financial industry.
Kim went to the same high school as Park Ji-man, the brother of former President Park Geun-hye.
Yoon’s pick to head the NTS majored in international economics at Seoul National University and has spent his entire career with the NTS.
Kim Chang-ki worked at the Blue House during the Lee Myung-bak administration and headed Park Geun-hye’s task force in tracking down illegal economic activities.
In January 2021, Kim was named to head the tax agency’s Jung District office in Seoul and in July 2021 took over the Busan bureau. He retired last December.
There is speculation that Finance Minister Choo may have had an influence on Kim’s nomination as they are both from the TK region, or Daegu and North Gyeongsang.
Choo hometown is Daegu while Kim is from Bonghwa, North Gyeongsang.
BY AHN HYO-SUNG, KIM NAM-JOON [lee.hojeong@joongang.co,kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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