Cabinet ministries brace for senior personnel shake-up amid swirling speculation

Attention is focused on filling senior Grade 1 vacancies across multiple ministries, including the first vice minister post at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, which supports Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hyung-il.

The most closely watched appointment is whether the ministry's first vice minister will be an internal promotion or a move up for Lee Dong-jin, a former professor who worked on President Lee Jae Myung's presidential campaign. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy has a vacancy at the trade vice minister level — the post responsible for overseeing investment-related work with the United States — while the Ministry of Climate, Environment and Energy lacks a director general for energy transition policy, who would oversee the 12th Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand (covering 2026–2040) and renewable energy policy.

According to government sources Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Lee took office as head of the Ministry of Economy and Finance on Tuesday, but a successor as the ministry's first vice minister has yet to be named.

The first vice minister is a critical post, supporting the deputy prime minister while overseeing internal personnel matters and policy on taxation, prices and the broader economy. At the ministry's predecessor, the Ministry of Planning and Budget, the position had conventionally gone to the Cheong Wa Dae secretary for economic and financial affairs — typically a career official promoted from within.

Under the Lee Jae Myung administration, however, that secretariat post was renamed the secretary for growth and the economy, and has been held since January this year by Lee Dong-jin, a former professor of economics and finance at Sangmyung University who was active in the president's election campaign.

After the presidential election, Lee joined the state affairs planning committee's first economic subcommittee, was brought in as a policy adviser to the deputy prime minister in September last year, and moved to Cheong Wa Dae five months later in January this year. He is known as the architect of then-candidate Lee Jae Myung's "real growth" platform, having served as deputy head of the policy bureau of the Democratic Party of Korea's election strategy committee. The "real growth" concept envisions a major leap for Korea's economy and industry through three strategies: technology-driven growth, inclusive growth and fair growth.

Given this background, the prevailing view in government circles is that Lee Dong-jin's elevation to first vice minister cannot be ruled out.

At the same time, observers note that appointing an outsider to the post would deal a significant blow to Deputy Prime Minister Lee's leadership, given that the Ministry of Economy and Finance — launched as a separate entity from the Ministry of Planning and Budget — carries less institutional weight than its predecessor, and that a backlog of promotions has fueled considerable internal discontent.

The Ministry of Planning and Budget's vice minister, appointed in July, was promoted from the budget bureau director general position in keeping with convention. If the Ministry of Economy and Finance follows the same tradition of elevating an internal candidate, the frontrunner is widely seen as Vice Minister-level official Kang Ki-ryong. Kang, who passed the civil service examination in the 39th cohort, has built a reputation as a policy specialist through roles including director of the industrial economy division, director of the policy coordination division, head of policy planning, and director general of the policy coordination bureau.

The vice minister-level post coordinates the ministry's bureaus and divisions, supports the vice minister in setting broad policy direction and mediates disagreements between agencies. Deputy Prime Minister Lee himself previously served in the position.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy is preparing for a large-scale reshuffle. Currently, the only vacant Grade 1 post is the trade vice minister position — previously held by Park Jeong-seong before his appointment as chief trade negotiator — but two or three additional Grade 1 appointments are expected around the time of the national audit. Promotions and transfers at the bureau and division director level are also planned in conjunction with those moves.

The post of director general for resources and industry policy, which handles the oil, gas and minerals supply chain, has been operating under an acting arrangement since former director general Kim Jong-cheol recently took office as the ninth commissioner of the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority. Several other key bureau director posts — including those for industrial technology and AI — have also been vacant for months.

At the Ministry of Climate, Environment and Energy, former Director General for Energy Transition Policy Lee Won-ju moved to Cheong Wa Dae late last month as an adviser for mega-projects, but a successor has yet to be named. Candidates from the 41st and 42nd civil service examination cohorts are being mentioned within and around the ministry as the leading contenders for the post.

There are growing calls for an urgent appointment, as the director general for energy transition policy must oversee the 12th Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand — which must be finalized by year-end — as well as grid construction, a prerequisite for the success of three major mega-projects, and the formulation and rollout of renewable energy policy.

The Korea Fair Trade Commission, which is preparing for a second round of organizational restructuring, also faces a major personnel shake-up. A new standing commissioner — a Grade 1 post added under an amendment to the Fair Trade Act passed in April — is expected to be named. While the prevailing expectation had been that an outside figure would be brought in for the first time in 17 years, it is understood that the appointment will go to an internal official, reportedly because the compensation is too low to attract lawyers or university professors.

By contrast, the post of Korea Consumer Agency president — previously held by a former Fair Trade Commission vice chairperson — is understood to have gone to someone from outside the commission.

Choi Jang-gwan, the current director general of the conglomerate surveillance bureau, is understood to be the frontrunner to lead the newly established Special Investigation Planning Unit, a bureau-level body of about 40 staff comprising three investigation divisions, which launches Thursday. Within and around the commission, the unit is being described as the revival — after 21 years — of the investigation bureau abolished in 2005.

The restructuring comes as the commission moves to strengthen its investigative capacity, even as companies have increasingly turned to the courts to challenge on-site inspection procedures. Coupang Inc and Hanwha recently filed for injunctions against Fair Trade Commission investigations, and courts have granted those requests in succession, intensifying a dispute over the scope and procedures of on-site inspections.