Kim Yong-beom steps down as Cheong Wa Dae policy chief in sweeping economic reshuffle

Kim Yong-beom abruptly stepped down as Cheong Wa Dae policy chief on Tuesday, capping a sweeping overhaul of the Lee Jae Myung administration's economic and policy leadership after a string of key Cabinet replacements.

Cheong Wa Dae Chief Spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said in a morning briefing that Kim submitted his resignation Monday and that President Lee Jae Myung accepted it Tuesday.

The resignation was accepted just one day after it was submitted. Kim, appointed as the first policy chief of the Lee administration, leaves the post after roughly 15 months in office.

A career bureaucrat by background, Kim is an economic policy veteran who held senior positions in macroeconomics and finance — including senior economist at the World Bank, secretary general of the Financial Services Commission and first vice minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. He was tapped as inaugural policy chief shortly after the Lee administration took office in early June last year, spending about 15 months coordinating the government's policy agenda across macroeconomics, industry and real estate.

Kim's sudden exit is drawing attention in part because it coincides with a mid-scale cabinet reshuffle carried out in recent days. President Lee on Sunday nominated Lee Hyeong-il, first vice minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, as deputy prime minister and finance minister, and Hong Ji-seon, second vice minister of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, as land minister — both internal promotions signaling a drive to accelerate economic and real estate policy.

With key economic Cabinet departures now followed by the exit of the presidential policy chief, observers inside and outside political circles are raising the possibility that the moves amount to de facto accountability measures over confusion in the administration's handling of economic and real estate policy. Kim had faced criticism, particularly from the opposition, for aggressively pushing the introduction of single-stock leveraged ETFs, which critics said destabilized the stock and financial markets.