Yoon Suk-yeol nominates professor for Korea's next education minister

Education Minister nominee Lee Ju-ho [YONHAP]

President Yoon Suk-yeol nominated Lee Ju-ho, a professor at the Korea Development Institute School of Public Policy and Management and former education minister under the Lee Myung-bak administration, as the next education minister on Thursday.

The presidential office announced the nomination during a briefing on Thursday, picking Lee to succeed Park Soon-ae, the previous education minister who resigned over public backlash against her plan to lower the age at which children enter elementary school, after just one month in office.

If appointed after a confirmation hearing, Lee would be returning to the education minister job nearly a decade after he first held the position. His term as minister lasted from August 2010 to March 2013 under the Lee Myung-bak administration. Before that, he served as a member of the National Assembly for the Grand National Party, called the Hannara Party in Korean, between 2004 and 2008.

Lee graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in economics from Seoul National University and obtained a Master’s Degree in economics from the same school. He then earned his doctorate in economics from Cornell University in the United States.

Yoon has had difficulty naming an education minister, with his first nominee to the position, Kim In-chul, having received allegations of favoritism in relation to family members receiving scholarships from a nonprofit organization and withdrawing from the nomination as a result.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]