South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday announced a partial reshuffle of three Cabinet members, tapping Cho Yoon-sun, former gender equality and family minister, as new minister of culture, sports and tourism. Kim Jae-soo, chief executive of Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corp., was also designated as new minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs, while Cho Kyeung-kyu, deputy chief of the Office for Government Policy Coordination was nominated as new minister of environment.

Cho, 50, who has been named as new culture minister, is one of Park’s close aides that served various government posts including gender equality and family minister and senior presidential secretary for political affairs. She is known to have been nominated for fully understanding the president’s philosophy on state affairs.

Kim, 59, who has been tapped as new agriculture minister, is an expert on agro-livestock products who served various posts as a public official including director of major divisions at the agriculture ministry, deputy agriculture minister, and administrator of Rural Development Administration (RDA).

Cho, 57, who has been named as new environment minister, has previously served budget-related roles at former Economic Planning Board, the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the Ministry of Planning and Budget, and current Ministry of Strategy and Finance (MOSF).

President Park also conducted reshuffle of four vice-ministerial positions.

Noh Hyeong-ouk, deputy finance minister for fiscal affairs at MOSF, was picked as new deputy chief of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, replacing Cho Kyeung-kyu, while Jeong Marn-ki, secretary for industry and trade affairs, was designated as new vice minister of trade, industry and energy. Park Kyeong-ho, a partner at Lee & Ko, was tapped as new vice chief of Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, while Chung Hwang-keun, presidential secretary for agricultural and fishery affairs, was named as new head of RDA.

By Nam Gi-hyun

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