Perfect Storm Shadow... Will Kim Juhyun, Nominee for Financial Services Commission Chair, Be Appointed Without a Hearing?

End of 30-Day Confirmation Hearing Period, Possibility of Yoon Forcing Appointment After Return
High Need for Appointment Amid Economic Crisis, but Allegations of 'Nakhasan Personnel' Persist

Kim Joo-hyun, chairman of the Credit Finance Association and nominee for the Financial Services Commission chairman, listens to questions from reporters at a press conference and meeting with reporters held on the 7th at the Credit Finance Association in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kim In-cheol [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Yoon Jin Kim] Despite growing concerns about a 'perfect storm (total complex crisis)' both domestically and internationally, the position of the Financial Services Commission (FSC) chairman, who should be leading crisis response measures, remains vacant. Attention is focused on whether Kim Joo-hyun, the nominee for FSC chairman whose statutory confirmation hearing deadline expires on the 30th, will become the first FSC chairman to be appointed without a confirmation hearing.

President Yoon Suk-yeol submitted a request for a confirmation hearing for nominee Kim to the National Assembly on the 10th. According to the Confirmation Hearing Act, the National Assembly must complete the review or hold the confirmation hearing within 20 days of the submission, that is, by the end of this month. However, due to difficulties in negotiating the organization of the National Assembly, holding the confirmation hearing itself is currently challenging.

Starting from the 1st of next month, the president can request the National Assembly to resend the confirmation hearing report within 10 days. If the National Assembly does not respond within this period, the president can appoint the nominee without a hearing. Previously, Kim Chang-ki, the Commissioner of the National Tax Service, was also appointed without a confirmation hearing by the National Assembly.

If the confirmation hearing is not held for nominee Kim as well, controversy over 'bypassing the hearing' is expected to intensify. However, voices are growing that the head of the financial authorities should be promptly confirmed amid high volatility in the financial market. The three major adversities of high inflation, high exchange rates, and high interest rates have materialized, but the position of FSC chairman, the head of the financial authorities, has been vacant for nearly two months. Since Go Seung-beom, the former FSC chairman, tendered his resignation on the 5th of last month, all schedules including Cabinet meetings have been handled by Kim So-young, the FSC vice chairman appointed on the 17th of last month.

However, controversy remains regarding nominee Kim's qualifications. Critics have pointed out that Kim, a traditional bureaucrat, is a 'parachute appointment' who was appointed with preferential treatment in the private sector. Kim worked at the Ministry of Finance, the predecessor of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, then served at the Financial Supervisory Commission and the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation, later becoming CEO of Woori Financial Research Institute, and has been serving as chairman of the Credit Finance Association since 2019. If Kim, who served as chairman of the Credit Finance Association until the 18th, is appointed FSC chairman, it will be difficult to avoid allegations of 'revolving door personnel' or 'conflicts of interest' due to his movement between public office and the private sector.

Meanwhile, it is widely expected that President Yoon, returning from attending the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) summit on the 1st of next month, will request the resubmission of the confirmation hearing report for Chairman Kim by early July. Given the worsening negotiations over the organization of the National Assembly between the ruling and opposition parties, it is analyzed that it will be difficult to delay the appointment until the formation of the National Assembly's standing committee or the special confirmation hearing committee for the hearing process. In this case, it is speculated that nominee Kim's appointment could be made by mid-July at the latest.

However, a variable is that the Democratic Party of Korea has hinted at the possibility of electing the Speaker of the National Assembly and conducting confirmation hearings by convening a temporary session of the National Assembly on its own. The Democratic Party submitted a request for convening a temporary session of the National Assembly in July on the 28th in the name of all its members, enabling the plenary session to be held from the 1st of next month. The plan is to block the forced appointments of Park Soon-ae, Minister of Education; Kim Seung-hee, Minister of Health and Welfare; and Kim Seung-gyeom, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, whose confirmation hearing report resubmission deadline ends on the 29th. If the special confirmation hearing committee is formed in early next month, the likelihood of nominee Kim undergoing a confirmation hearing will increase.

Oh Young-hwan, the Democratic Party floor spokesperson, after submitting the request for convening the temporary session to the National Assembly on the 28th, said, "By submitting the request for convening the temporary session today, if we wait just two days, ministers can be verified before the public through a proper confirmation hearing," and emphasized, "I hope there will be no unacceptable choice of forcing appointments. We will thoroughly verify the suitability of the nominees before the public."

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