[News Figures] Korea Electric Power Corporation's First Politician CEO 'Kim Dong-cheol'

[Photo by Yonhap News]

On the 1st, Kim Dong-cheol, a former lawmaker who was appointed as the new president candidate at the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) board meeting, is the first president from a political background to be appointed since KEPCO was established as a corporation in 1961.

He graduated from Seoul National University Law School and previously worked at the Korea Development Bank. He first entered politics in 1991 as a policy aide to Kwon No-gap, a Democratic Party lawmaker. Afterwards, Kim officially began his political career by joining the founding members of the National Congress for New Politics led by former President Kim Dae-jung.

In the 2004 17th National Assembly election, he ran as an Open Democratic Party candidate in the Gwangsan District of Gwangju Metropolitan City and gained attention by defeating an incumbent lawmaker. Kim served three terms within the Democratic Party faction until he joined the People’s Party.

Before the 20th general election in 2016, he joined the People’s Party along with former lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo, former Democratic Party leader Kim Han-gil, and Honam-origin lawmakers such as former National Intelligence Service Director Park Ji-won and former National Assembly Deputy Speaker Park Joo-sun. Kim was elected for a fourth term in Gwangsan District, Gwangju, and also served as the last floor leader of the People’s Party.

During the merger process with the Bareun Party led by former lawmaker Yoo Seung-min, Kim supported the integration and succeeded as the first floor leader. However, as the party split again ahead of the 2020 general election, Kim chose to remain with the Minsaeng Party but failed to secure a fifth term. Later, in October 2021, he joined the campaign of then-presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl by declaring support alongside former Speaker Park Joo-sun and served as the vice-chairman of the National Integration Committee of the transition team.

One of his representative achievements as a lawmaker was the opening of the Honam High-Speed Railway. Starting in 2004, he gathered signatures from 205 lawmakers and submitted a 'Government Proposal Urging Early Construction of the Honam High-Speed Railway' to the National Assembly, fully supporting the project and earning the nickname ‘Honamcheol’ (Honam Rail).

He was also active in proposing legislation. During his time as a lawmaker, he proposed over 500 bills, including the 'Prohibition of Preferential Treatment for Former Officials' and the 'Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials (CIO)' bills, which earned him another nickname, ‘Jeonguidongcheol’ (Justice Dong-cheol).

In the 19th National Assembly, he was also active in the Industry, Trade and Energy Committee, which oversees KEPCO as a supervised institution.

Meanwhile, at the temporary board meeting held that day, KEPCO resolved to hold an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders to appoint Kim as president. The shareholders’ meeting is scheduled to be held on the 18th at the headquarters in Naju, Jeollanam-do, where Kim will be officially appointed as president. According to the Act on the Management of Public Institutions, the president of KEPCO is finally appointed by the President upon recommendation by the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy after the executive recommendation committee’s nomination, review and resolution by the government’s public institution management committee, and approval by KEPCO’s board and shareholders’ meeting.

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