Kim Ki-choon, 74, the newly appointed presidential chief of staff, is a prosecutor-turned-politician with close personal ties to President Park Geun-hye, and has been one of her key political mentors for years.

The former justice minister is said to be well versed in Park’s state philosophy and vision, and thus considered an appropriate choice to tighten control of Cheong Wa Dae.

Born in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province, Kim graduated from Kyung Nam High School and Seoul National University. He served as prosecutor general and justice minister, and earned the nickname “Mr. Law and Order” for his perfectionist and principle-oriented demeanor and expertise in public security.

Kim entered politics as a member of the 15th National Assembly and served three consecutive terms on the ticket of the Grand National Party, the precursor to the Saenuri Party. He accumulated political finesse by serving as former GNP heavyweight Lee Hoi-chang’s special aide, head of the GNP’s research center, and chairman of the National Assembly’s Legislation and Judiciary Committee.

Kim’s deep personal ties with Park go back to the Jeongsu Foundation, a scholarship named after Park’s late father, former President Park Chung-hee, and mother, Yook Young-soo. He once headed Sangcheonghoe, an alumni meeting of Jeongsu scholarship recipients.

Kim also becomes the first aide to assist both father and daughter. He worked as a secretary during the later years of the Park Chung-hee regime.

Kim’s son-in-law and SNU professor Ahn Sang-hoon served as a member of Park’s transition committee for employment and welfare earlier this year.

Such close relations are also reflected in Kim’s participation in the so-called “seven-member circle,” a de facto advisory group of Park’s political mentors who share long relations with her or her father.

They include Assembly speaker Kang Chang-hee, former lawmakers Kim Yong-whan, Choi Byung-yul, Kim Yong-kap and Hyun Kyung-dae, and former Chosun Ilbo vice president Ahn Byung-hoon.

Meanwhile, upon Kim’s appointment, opposition forces highlighted his involvement in a 1992 scandal, when he, then-justice minister, along with other government officials, were caught plotting a smear campaign against an opposition presidential candidate at a restaurant.

(jhl@heraldcorp.com)


Park Joon-woo, Senior political affairs secretary

Park, 60, is a former ambassador to the European Union known for his outstanding job performance and leadership during his 30-odd years at the Foreign Ministry until his 2011 retirement.

The visiting professor at Yonsei University took the post that has been vacant since his predecessor Lee Jung-hyun became senior press secretary in June. 

The announcement caught many by surprise given Park’s lack of experience in domestic politics and an old practice of giving the job to a politician to a politician.

His name has repeatedly been floated as a powerful candidate for vice foreign minister and ambassador to China and Japan since the Lee Myung-bak administration.

With expertise in Japan and China issues, Park was credited with managing highly volatile relations with Tokyo under Junichiro Koizumi, the then hawkish prime minister, as director-general for Asia-Pacific affairs in 2004.

He took up other key posts including ambassador to Singapore, chief of planning and coordination, minister counselor at the embassy in Beijing and director for Japanese affairs.

(heeshin@heraldcorp.com)


Hong Kyung-shik, Senior civil affairs secretary

Hong, 62, a former veteran prosecutor and attorney, replaces Kwak Sang-do, who has been under criticism for allegedly intervening in the prosecution’s investigation into election meddling by the nation’s spy agency.

Hong served as a state prosecutor for more than 30 years and took high-level posts including chief of Seoul Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and Busan District Prosecutors’ Office. He retired in 2008 and has been working as a senior lawyer at a local firm Gwangchang.

Hong led prosecution investigations in highly sensitive cases including candlelit rallies against the impeachment of former President Roh Moo-hyun in 2004. The new senior presidential staffer is also known as one of the high-level prosecutors who pushed ahead with the government’s plan to increase penalties for drunk drivers.

(christory@heraldcorp.com)


Yoon Chang-bun, Senior future strategy secretary

Yoon, 59, is one of the country’s leading experts in ICT and media technology and the one who brainstormed President Park Geun-hye’s pledges for information and communication technology development during the presidential election.

He is a former CEO of Hanaro Telecom, the broadband service provider acquired by SKT in 2007. He previously served as president of the state-run Korea Information Society Development Institute.

Yoon also worked for the subcommittee on economic affairs on the presidential transition committee earlier this year. He has been recently teaching at the graduate school of information and media management at KAIST, and has been serving as an adviser for Kim & Chang, the nation’s largest law firm.

A native of Seoul, Yoon graduated from the department of industrial engineering at Seoul National University and received his Ph.D. in business administration from Northwestern University in the U.S.

(596story@heraldcorp.com)


Choi Won-young, Senior employment and welfare secretary

Choi, 55, is a former vice health minister and an expert on welfare administration with more than 30 years of experience.

Choi began his career as a government official after passing the national administrative exam in 1980.

From 1986, he served in various positions in the health ministry before being appointed the vice minister in August 2010. He served in the post under the former President Lee Myung-bak’s administration until November 2011.

He previously worked as an adviser for Bae, Kim and Lee LLC, a Seoul-based business law firm, and headed the Korea Integrative Medicine Development Institute in Daegu.

A native of Changnyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, Choi studied public administration at Kyungpook National University and earned his Master’s and doctoral degree in social welfare studies from the University of South Carolina in the U.S., and Yonsei University, respectively.

By Lee Joo-hee (596story@heraldcorp.com)