[Exclusive] Choo Kyung-ho's Child Dispatched to Public Enterprise, Converted to Regular Employee After One Year

Hired as a dispatched worker at the Science Creativity Foundation, became a regular employee after 1 year
At that time, board member included Lee Young, a People Power Party lawmaker
Choo Kyung-ho's side: "No reason for personnel request... Did not even know Lee Young, who was a board member at the time"

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] It has been confirmed that the daughter of Chu Kyung-ho, the nominee for Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, joined a public institution as a ‘dispatched worker’ in 2017 and was hired as a ‘regular employee’ just one year later in 2018, where she is currently working. This was a benefit she received following the current government’s policy of ‘converting non-regular workers to regular positions,’ and it was found that in 2018, the second year of dispatched work, the number of non-regular workers converted to regular employees unusually surged by more than 30. There are suspicions that Chu’s ‘dad chance’ played a role in the regularization process. Notably, among the board members of the institution during this period was Lee Young, a member of the People Power Party and nominee for Minister of SMEs and Startups under the Yoon Seok-yeol administration. Lee participated in the board meeting where the decision on regularization was made.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance nominee Choo Kyung-ho is arriving at the Presidential Transition Committee office in Tongui-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the morning of the 14th. Photo by Transition Committee Press Corps

According to the office of Kim Du-kwan, a member of the National Assembly’s Planning and Finance Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, Chu’s second daughter, Chu Mo, joined the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Creativity (KOFAC) as a dispatched worker in May 2017. One year later, in May 2018, her status changed to that of a regular employee.

Chu was able to move from being ‘affiliated with a dispatch service company’ to ‘belonging to a public institution’ thanks to the current government’s policy of ‘converting non-regular workers to regular employees.’ The foundation held an extraordinary board meeting in January 2018, eight months after Chu joined, and placed the ‘Plan for Conversion of Non-Regular Workers to Regular Employees’ on the agenda, which was approved as originally proposed. Then, in April, they announced a ‘limited competition for conversion hiring of dispatched and service workers to indefinite-term contracts,’ and in May, dispatched and service workers were converted to regular employees (indefinite-term contracts). At that time, a total of 35 people were converted to regular employees, including 31 in administrative and management positions.

Chu’s daughter was also converted to a regular employee at this time. Her certificate of employment states that she has been working as an administrative assistant in the Performance Expansion Team since May 24, 2018.

A foundation official explained, "Chu Mo was dispatched to the foundation from a dispatch service company from May 22, 2017, to May 23, 2018, and was not directly employed," adding, "The decision on dispatch was made after interviews with the department requesting the dispatch among the applicants."

However, after Chu was converted to a regular employee, the number of regular employees converted at the foundation sharply decreased. There were zero conversions in 2016 before the current government took office and in its first year, 2017. After Chu’s conversion, there were only two in 2019 and zero in 2020, returning to pre-government levels. Regarding why there was an unusually high number of new hires including regular conversions only in 2018, the foundation stated, "It was a follow-up procedure conducted in accordance with the government’s public sector non-regular worker conversion policy at the time," and declined to comment further.

The office of Assemblyman Kim is focusing on the possibility that Chu’s personal connections played a role in this process. At that time, the foundation’s board included Lee Young, who is currently in the same party. Lee served as a non-standing director of the foundation from May 16, 2016, to May 15, 2018, attending board meetings. Lee was elected as a proportional representative for the People Power Party in 2020. Chu and Lee have both held senior leadership positions within the People Power Party, as floor leader and deputy floor leader, respectively.

Separately, changes to the foundation’s open recruitment rules are also expected to become controversial. New hires at the foundation are supposed to go through ‘document screening ? written test ? interview’ according to recruitment rules, but the ‘subjects and scoring of the open recruitment exam (essay 100 ? interview 100)’ that existed in the October 2015 recruitment rules were deleted in the revised version of February 2017.

Chu’s camp denied the ‘dad chance’ allegations, saying, "There is absolutely no reason to make a personnel request." Regarding the relationship with Lee, they said, "As far as we know, they were not acquaintances before."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.