244 senior civil servants promoted in first half of this year
Yoon government promoted 282 annually in 2023
Promotion period cut from 8 years 7 months to 8 years
Share of women in senior civil service rises to 17.1%
Promotions to the senior civil service have increased and the time required to earn them has shortened since the Lee Jae Myung government took office, an analysis of government data shows — contradicting recent claims of a personnel bottleneck under the new administration.
Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Park Gyun-taek, a member of the National Assembly's Steering Committee, said Saturday that the findings emerged from his review of civil servant promotion data submitted by the Ministry of Personnel Management.
According to the data, 244 officials were promoted from Grade 3 to the senior executive service in the first half of this year alone. Under the Yoon Suk Yeol government, the annual total was 282 in 2023 and 309 in 2024. Park projected that once second-half promotions are counted, this year's total will surpass the annual figures recorded under the Yoon administration.
During the 2022 transition year, 333 senior civil servants were promoted; the figure was 263 in 2025. Park's office noted, however, that the 2025 figure should be viewed in light of promotions being in effect suspended in the first half of last year following the emergency martial law declaration and subsequent impeachment proceedings.
The time needed to earn a promotion has also fallen. Under the Yoon government, advancing from Grade 3 to the senior executive service's Class A — equivalent to a director-general at a central ministry — took an average of eight years and seven months. Under the Lee government, that average has dropped to eight years, a reduction of seven months.
The number of women promoted to senior positions has also grown. Female promotions stood at 29 in 2023 and 42 each in 2024 and 2025, but reached 58 in the first half of this year alone. As a result, women's share of the senior civil service rose from 12.9 percent in 2024 to 17.1 percent as of June this year.
"Some media outlets have been claiming a personnel bottleneck under the Lee Jae Myung government based on unsubstantiated testimony, but these statistics show all such claims to be false," Park said. "I hope there will be no more attempts to undermine President Lee Jae Myung and his government with baseless allegations."
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