South Korean president-elect Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday named Choo Kyung-ho to be deputy prime minister and finance minister, as the country seeks to tackle surging inflation, household debt and demand for welfare.
Yoon, who takes office on May 10, announced eight Cabinet minister nominations, including defense, industry, health and land. All are subject to parliamentary confirmation hearings.
As deputy prime minister, Choo, 62, would double as finance minister and oversee economic policy, replacing Hong Nam-ki.
Photo: Reuters
Choo is a second-term lawmaker in Yoon’s conservative People Power Party. He served 33 years in government roles including vice minister of economy and finance, and vice chairman of the Financial Services Commission.
His nomination came as Asia’s fourth-largest economy faces challenges of quelling decade-high inflation without destabilizing markets as recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
Standing with Choo, Yoon said the nominee would facilitate policy coordination among agencies and with the parliament.
“The current economic situation are extremely serious, and internal and external circumstances are tough,” Choo told a news conference, citing inflation and slowing growth. “The new government’s top priority is to stabilize prices and people’s livelihoods.”
South Korea’s economy last year grew 4 percent, highest in 11 years, but is expected to slow down this year and consumer inflation is at a decade-high of 4.1 percent amid global supply shocks and disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
As a member of the presidential transition committee, Choo has been working to draw up an extra budget plan to support small businesses and self-employed people who have been affected by COVID-19.
Yoon nominated Lee Jong-sup, a retired military commander who formerly served as deputy chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to be defense minister.
The incoming president is mapping out his foreign policy agenda just as tension flares after North Korea launched a new intercontinental ballistic missile last month.
Lee said he would bolster Seoul’s independent response capability and “maximize US deterrence” to counter the North’s threats.
A team of Yoon’s foreign policy and security advisers last week said that they discussed redeploying US strategic assets, such as nuclear bombers and submarines, to South Korea during talks with Washington officials.
Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team’s victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday, with 11 mainly young fans crushed to death, the local state’s chief minister said. Joyous cricket fans had come out to celebrate and welcome home their heroes, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after they beat Punjab Kings in a roller-coaster Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket final on Tuesday night. However, the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra calling it “absolutely heartrending.” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the deceased are young, with 11 dead
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
By 2027, Denmark would relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro (US$228.6 million) agreement that has raised concerns among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and residents, but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU. The agreement, reached in 2022 and ratified by Kosovar lawmakers last year, provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark. They must not have been convicted of terrorism or war crimes, or have a mental condition or terminal disease. Once their sentence is completed in Kosovan, they would be deported to their home country. In
LOST CONTACT: The mission carried payloads from Japan, the US and Taiwan’s National Central University, including a deep space radiation probe, ispace said Japanese company ispace said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the moon’s surface during its lunar touchdown attempt yesterday, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon, which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the US to achieve a moon landing. Resilience, ispace’s second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has
RSS