Cheong Wa Dae said Monday that President Lee Jae Myung appointed Cho Yong-beom, director of the budget bureau at the Ministry of Planning and Budget, as the ministry's new deputy minister. July 20, 2026 [Provided by Cheong Wa Dae. Redistribution and DB prohibited]
Cheong Wa Dae said Monday that President Lee Jae Myung appointed Cho Yong-beom, director of the budget bureau at the Ministry of Planning and Budget, as the ministry's new deputy minister. July 20, 2026 [Provided by Cheong Wa Dae. Redistribution and DB prohibited]

Cho Yong-beom, director of the budget bureau at the Ministry of Planning and Budget, was appointed the ministry's new deputy minister on Monday. Cho is a seasoned budget expert who has held key positions throughout the budget line. A native of Jeju, he graduated from Jeju Saedaebu High School and Seoul National University's College of Law before entering public service in 1995 through the 39th administrative civil service examination.

Shortly after the global financial crisis, he served as head of the trade adjustment division at the Ministry of Economy and Finance's international economy bureau in 2010, then moved to the ministry's budget standards division in 2013, marking the start of his career as a full-fledged budget specialist. He subsequently headed the administrative budget, land and infrastructure budget, and agriculture and maritime budget divisions, and also served as an administrator in the presidential economic senior secretary's office. In 2016 he headed the budget policy division and in 2017 the budget coordination division, directly overseeing the drafting of both the main budget and supplementary budgets. He later served as director for social budget review and director for budget coordination review before moving to the post of budget bureau director in December last year.

When the Ministry of Planning and Budget was separated from the Ministry of Finance and Economy in January, Cho became the new ministry's inaugural budget bureau director, overseeing national fiscal operations exceeding 700 trillion won ($472 billion).

Earlier this year, as soaring oil prices driven by the Middle East war placed a growing burden on household finances, he was credited with pushing through a 26.2 trillion won supplementary budget — dubbed the "war supplementary budget" — in just 29 days, the shortest turnaround on record, helping to stabilize livelihoods. He is known for clean, efficient work and open internal communication, and his experience as a spokesperson for the Ministry of Economy and Finance has earned him a reputation for strong media instincts.

In an employee survey conducted by the ministry's labor union, Cho was voted "the boss employees most want to emulate" for three consecutive years from 2013 to 2015 — when he was a division chief — earning him a place in what colleagues call the "Hall of Fame."


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