Min Hyeong-bae, mayor of the South Jeolla-Gwangju Special City, issued a round of appointments Tuesday upon taking office, including the designation of deputy mayors.
Hwang Gi-yeon, former administrative vice governor of South Jeolla Province, was named acting administrative deputy mayor while concurrently serving as deputy mayor for economy and agriculture. Ko Gwang-wan, former administrative deputy mayor of Gwangju, was appointed acting deputy mayor for safety and public welfare while also serving as deputy mayor for culture and industry.
The special city operates under a four-deputy-mayor structure. The acting appointments are intended to prevent any administrative gap until permanent selections are made for the administrative and safety-welfare deputy mayor posts.
An Sang-hyeon was named director of industry affairs and Ju Sun-seon director of economic affairs, launching the city's industry and economy divisions to oversee the development of future industries including AI and semiconductors.
The heads of the tourism, fisheries and agriculture, environment and forestry, and health and welfare bureaus were also filled by appointing bureau directors from the former Gwangju city and South Jeolla provincial governments. The appointees are Choi Yeong-ju (tourism), Yu Deok-gyu (fisheries and agriculture), Kim Jeong-seop (environment and forestry) and Jeong Gwang-seon (health and welfare).
Within the planning and coordination office, Son Myeong-do was named policy planning officer and Yun Chang-mo strategic planning officer, both tasked with developing the special city's overall strategy.
Kang Hyo-seok, a former senior official of South Jeolla Province, was appointed to lead the administrative integration task force. Separate assignments were made for the integration planning section chief, team leaders and working-level staff to prepare for the administrative merger.
Several other posts — including the heads of the eastern regional office, cultural policy, metropolitan safety, construction and transportation, the South Jeolla Human Resources Development Institute and the Agricultural Technology Institute — will be run by acting officials until permanent successors are named.
"We made targeted appointments where necessary to minimize any administrative gap, given that organizational restructuring and personnel arrangements are not yet complete in the early stage of integration," a special city official said.
The special city plans to complete its first full organizational restructuring and personnel reshuffle by Aug. 1.
sij@heraldcorp.com
