Four minister-level officials from the Finance Ministry's predecessor agency are in post; none from the Trade Ministry

Budget split and outside vice minister appointment weigh on Finance Ministry morale

The marker stone at Government Complex Sejong [Yonhap]
The marker stone at Government Complex Sejong [Yonhap]

As the Lee Jae Myung administration enters its second year, officials from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy have been making notable inroads into Cheong Wa Dae — while the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the deputy prime minister's ministry, has seen even its vice minister post filled by an outsider, leaving the fortunes of the two ministries sharply diverged.

At the minister level and above, however, the picture is reversed. Four senior officials trace their roots to the Finance Ministry's predecessor, the Ministry of Economy and Finance: Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lee Hyeong-il, Financial Services Commission Chairman Lee Eok-won, Trade Minister Kim Jung-kwan and Office for Government Policy Coordination Director Im Gi-geun. The Trade Ministry, by contrast, has produced none.

According to government sources in Sejong on Sunday, four Trade Ministry alumni currently hold secretary-level or higher posts at Cheong Wa Dae: Moon Shin-hak, senior secretary for economic growth; Kim Seong-yeol, secretary for economic security; Lee Won-ju, senior adviser for national strategic investment (at senior secretary rank); and Yoon Seong-hyeok, secretary for industrial policy. Yoon, who passed the civil service exam in the 42nd cohort, began his career at the Ministry of Economy and Finance but moved to the Trade Ministry as a junior official and has served there ever since. Lee Won-ju, from the 40th cohort, also spent his entire career at the Trade Ministry before the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment was launched last October.

Despite the growing Trade Ministry presence at Cheong Wa Dae, not a single Trade Ministry official has risen to a minister-level post.

The Finance Ministry, meanwhile, has yet to place a single Cheong Wa Dae secretary since the Lee administration took office last year. The economic and financial affairs secretary post was renamed the secretary for growth economics under the current administration, and the role has been held since January by Lee Dong-jin, a former professor in the department of economics and finance at Sangmyung University who worked on Lee's presidential campaign.

The policy chief and chief economic adviser posts — long regarded as Finance Ministry territory — have also gone to veterans of Lee's presidential campaign. Policy Chief Ha Jun-gyeong and Senior Economic Secretary Moon Shin-hak are the most prominent examples. Ha graduated from Seoul National University with a degree in economics and later taught economics at Hanyang University. He worked on Lee's campaigns in both 2022 and 2025 and has served as chief economic adviser since the administration launched last June.

Moon, who passed the civil service exam in the 38th cohort, also studied economics at Seoul National University. He served at the Trade Ministry as director of nuclear energy industry policy and as spokesperson before leaving public service over the early shutdown of the Wolsong Unit 1 nuclear power plant. He took charge of drafting energy policy campaign pledges for Lee's 2025 presidential campaign.

In previous administrations, the chief economic adviser post was almost always filled by officials from the Finance Ministry or its predecessor. In the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, former Chief Economic Adviser Choi Sang-mok had served as first vice minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and former Chief Economic Adviser Park Chun-seop had been the ministry's budget director. Under the Moon Jae-in administration, former Policy Chief Lee Ho-seung had served as first vice minister of the Finance Ministry, and former Chief Economic Adviser Ahn Il-hwan had been second vice minister. Economic advisers Cho Won-dong under Park Geun-hye and Choi Joong-kyung under Lee Myung-bak also came from the Finance Ministry's predecessor. Kim Yong-beom, who served as the Lee Jae Myung administration's inaugural policy chief, had previously been vice minister of the Finance Ministry.

In the administration's second year, however, outsiders now occupy all three posts traditionally seen as Finance Ministry domain: policy chief, chief economic adviser and first vice minister of the Finance Ministry. The ministry has already seen its authority shrink after the budget function was split off from its predecessor, and it has now failed to fill even the vice minister post — the position responsible for internal personnel decisions — through internal promotion.

Cheong Wa Dae appointed Financial Services Commission Vice Chairman Kwon Dae-yeong as first vice minister of the Finance Ministry on Oct. 1. Kwon is only the third official to move from the FSC into the Finance Ministry and rise to a senior post, following former Deputy Prime Minister Choo Kyung-ho and former Cheong Wa Dae Policy Chief Kim Yong-beom. With the first vice minister post now held by an outsider, there is growing sentiment within the ministry that pathways must be opened for current Grade 1 officials to be promoted to head external agencies. At present, Finance Ministry officials are also being shut out of the top posts at affiliated agencies such as Statistics Korea and the Public Procurement Service.

"In the second year of the Lee Jae Myung administration, Trade Ministry officials have become conspicuously prominent at Cheong Wa Dae — yet not a single one has reached minister level," a Sejong government official said. "It means the Trade Ministry is doing the heavy lifting on major economic issues at home and abroad — investment negotiations with the United States, mega-projects, responding to the Middle East war — but is not getting the decisive reward."

Another official said the Finance Ministry, already diminished by the budget split, needs strong internal morale if it is to reinvent itself as a genuine deputy prime minister's ministry. "That requires both the authority to lead economic policy and a clear path for officials to move into outside posts to break the promotion logjam," the official said.


oskymoon@heraldcorp.com