President Moon Jae-in picked a senior official of the statutory auditor as secretary to supervise discipline and integrity in public offices, according to the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.

Kim Jong-ho, director of the public office supervision department at the Board of Audit and Inspection, was appointed for the post, the Blue House spokesperson Park Soo-hyun announced Wednesday.

With his expertise in the personnel confirmation and audit of high-profile public servants, Kim is expected to add momentum to the president’s ongoing selection of key officials.

Born in 1962 in South Gyeongsang Province’s Miryang and passed the state civil service exam in 1993, Kim has since then served in the BAI, which makes him a rare non-prosecutor to take the given post.

The presidential secretary for public office discipline was previously occupied by Cho Eung-cheon who, in the wake of a scandal that he leaked confidential documents related to corruption within the presidential house, resigned and later joined the liberal Democratic Party of Korea.

Cho Kuk, senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, on Tuesday placed a ban upon public servants to leak or shred documents without authorization, as part of his move to tighten discipline in government offices.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)