Former vice finance minister picked as NPS’ chief executive

Yong-jin Kim, who served as a vice finance minister of President Moon Jae-in’s government between mid-2017 and 2018, has been chosen as the National Pension Service’s (NPS) new chief executive, according to senior government sources.

The former senior bureaucrat will likely begin a three-year term as CEO of the $600 billion pension plan later next month at the earliest, after getting the nod from the welfare ministry and President Moon.

“Ex-vice minister Kim is the strongest candidate for the CEO position of National Pension Service,” one of the sources told the Korean Investors on June 18. “Given that other candidates have low chances of winning the job, he was actually confirmed as CEO.”

He will fill the post left vacant since Sung-joo Kim abruptly quit in January to run in April general elections.

The ex-CEO was elected from a district in a provincial city where NPS’ investment management’s headquarters are located. He is now on the parliament’s welfare committee overseeing the world’s third-largest pension scheme.

The incoming CEO, 58, lost the April general election in a city near Seoul. He had previously worked as CEO of utility Korea East-West Power Co. Ltd.

To select CEO, NPS goes through public recruitment processes. An NPS committee shortlists candidates to three to five and recommends them to welfare minister. The minister then picks one and seeks the president’s approval.

But NPS has tended to name as CEO the one picked by the presidential Blue House from the start.

Write to Jung-hwan Hwang at jung@hankyung.com