KB News Desk
President Lee Jae Myung named veteran trade bureaucrat Park Jung-sung as the country’s new trade minister Friday, as Seoul navigates sensitive tariff and investment negotiations with Washington.
Park, who has served as deputy minister for trade at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources, has spent nearly three decades in trade and commerce policy, according to Cheong Wa Dae.
His appointment comes after former Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo was dismissed on Saturday, creating an unexpected vacancy at the top of South Korea’s trade negotiating apparatus. Yeo had played a central role in negotiations with Washington, though the government said his dismissal was unrelated to the trade talks.
“Based on his experience as co-chair of the WTO negotiations on investment facilitation and as chief working-level negotiator for the task force on US tariff negotiations, we expect him to resolve complex trade issues through a sophisticated negotiating strategy,” senior presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said in a press statement.
“We determined that he is the right person to maximize the national interest while maintaining continuity in negotiations amid pressing trade issues with the United States, given his role overseeing working-level tariff and investment negotiations with Washington,” Kang added.
Lee also appointed Choi Yong-chul as commissioner of the National Fire Agency on Friday.
Choi, who had been serving as deputy commissioner and acting head of the agency, is a career firefighting official with 27 years of experience spanning front-line emergency response and senior policy positions.
