National Assembly Speaker Cho Jeong-sik appoints Kang Tae-woong as chief of staff

National Assembly Speaker Cho Jeong-sik on Monday appointed Kang Tae-woong, former Democratic Party of Korea Yongsan-gu district committee chairman, as chief of staff, completing his secretariat lineup with the selection of four senior secretaries.

Kang is widely regarded as bringing extensive policy experience to the role, having served in senior positions including director general of the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Planning and Coordination Office before rising to first deputy mayor for administration.

Since joining the Democratic Party in 2020, Kang has run in two general elections in Yongsan-gu — for the 21st and 22nd National Assemblies — and has served as the district's party committee chairman and standing vice chairman of the Seoul Metropolitan Party chapter, building a track record in grassroots policy work, political acumen and personal networks.

The secretariat structure has also been reorganized, shifting from its previous configuration of political affairs, policy, public affairs and messaging chiefs to four new portfolios: political affairs, policy, diplomacy and security, and public communications. Speaker Cho created the new diplomacy and security post to provide systematic support for the speaker's diplomatic activities and the Assembly's parliamentary diplomacy, while merging the public affairs and messaging functions into a single public communications chief to strengthen outreach to the public.

Lee Jeong-hee, a former aide in Cho's Assembly office, was named senior secretary for political affairs; Yoon Sang-eun, former deputy chief of the floor leader's office, was appointed senior secretary for policy; Lee Wang-hwi, a former professor of political science and diplomacy at Ajou University, was named senior secretary for diplomacy and security; and attorney Jang Hyeon-ju was appointed senior secretary for public communications.

Lee Jeong-hee has worked alongside Speaker Cho since the 17th National Assembly and has served as a senior administrative official at Cheong Wa Dae and as a central committee member of the Democratic Party, bringing sharp political instincts and deep expertise to his role overseeing the speaker's overall political planning.

Yoon Sang-eun, a policy and legislative specialist who built his experience as an aide to Speaker Cho, has also served as an administrative official at Cheong Wa Dae, deputy chief of the floor leader's office and director at the secretary general's office, giving him broad exposure to national governance, local administration and party affairs — credentials that make him well suited to tackling on-the-ground livelihood issues.

Lee Wang-hwi is an international politics specialist whose research has focused on US-China strategic competition and the restructuring of global supply chains. He contributed to planning the Lee Jae Myung administration's diplomacy, security and unification policy agenda through last year's state planning committee and has served as an advisory member of the National Economic Advisory Council.

Jang Hyeon-ju, a former deputy spokesperson for the Democratic Party, has also served as an adjunct professor at Hanyang University's Graduate School of Education and as a non-standing director at the Korea Institute for Small and Medium Enterprises and Venture Business, combining broad media expertise with the professional grounding of a legal background.