The Korea Exchange announced on the 9th that it has appointed former People Power Party chief policy officer Kim Hong-sik as the new market surveillance commissioner.
On the same day, the Korea Exchange held the second extraordinary shareholders' meeting at 4 p.m. and passed the agenda to appoint former Commissioner Kim Hong-sik as the market surveillance commissioner. The new market surveillance commissioner will serve a three-year term from the 12th until May 11, 2028.
The Exchange Market Surveillance Committee has the role of monitoring and investigating stock price manipulation and unfair transactions, while notifying the financial authorities of relevant matters if necessary.
To fill the vacancy of the market surveillance commissioner, the Exchange held a board meeting on the 18th of last month and independently recommended former Commissioner Kim Hong-sik as the candidate for market surveillance commissioner. The term of former Commissioner Kim Geun-ik expired in January of this year.
Born in 1970, new Commissioner Kim Hong-sik graduated from the Department of Business Administration at Seoul National University and obtained an MBA from the University of Michigan. He entered public service as the 37th class of administrative service.
He then served as the head of planning and administration at the Financial Intelligence Unit, the head of the Financial Stability Support Division at the Financial Services Commission, and since early in the Yoon Suk-yeol administration in 2022, he has been in charge of the Financial Policy Division of the Office for Government Policy Coordination. Last year, he also worked as the chief policy officer for the People Power Party.
There are concerns among some that the appointment of new Commissioner Kim Hong-sik, who is a figure from the Yoon administration and belonged to a specific party, may be seen as a case of 'political placement.' In this regard, Jeong Il-young, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, noted, "It raises significant concerns about conflicts of interest under the Public Service Ethics Act to appoint someone from the Yoon Suk-yeol administration who is affiliated with a specific party as the key person responsible for overseeing order in the Korea Exchange."