This article was posted on the ChosunBiz CSR site at 10 a.m. on Feb. 13, 2026.
President Lee Jae-myung reportedly had a conversation over tea with Korea Development Bank (KDB) Chairman Park Sang-jin after last December's briefing on the Financial Services Commission, the Korea Fair Trade Commission and their subordinate agencies. Political circles say Park is one of the financial figures who has a close relationship with the president. A ruling party official said, "Among heads of financial and public institutions, the person who communicates most frequently with the president is Chairman Park."
Chairman Park is the first person promoted to the chair from within Korea Development Bank (KDB) since its founding in 1954. Park joined KDB in 1990 and spent about 30 years handling restructuring, legal affairs and compliance monitoring. He participated in major corporate restructuring task forces for Kia Group, Daewoo Heavy Industries and Daewoo Motor, and is regarded as a hands-on financier. Inside and outside the financial and political circles, people say, "Besides his outstanding career, the school ties with the president helped him secure the chairmanship."
President Lee Jae-myung and Chairman Park were classmates in the 1982 law class at Chung-Ang University and are known to have lived together while preparing for the bar exam, even cooking meals together. Park is two years older. Their relationship continued steadily even after the president passed the bar exam. Park gave up the state exam and joined KDB, choosing a career in finance.
The president conducted ministry briefings live and several times posed sharp questions that left ministers or agency heads embarrassed, but he offered only encouragement to Chairman Park. During the briefing on Dec. 19 last year, the president asked Park, "Korea Development Bank is responsible for providing necessary funds to promote industry, right?" and when Park replied, "Yes, that's right," he smiled and said only, "Do your best."
The chairmanship of Korea Development Bank is considered the most desirable position among state-run banks. The annual salary is about 40 million won, higher than the president's (about 27,177,000 won). In midlast year, several former bureaucrats competed for the KDB chair, but Park was selected.
The ruling party's current networking keywords are "Jeonbuk, Chung-Ang University, legal circles," and Park possesses all of them. Park graduated from Jeonju High School. Lee Chan-jin, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, who was a classmate of the president in the bar exam (28th) and the Judicial Research and Training Institute (18th class), is also known to be close to the president, but political circles say, "In terms of the president's personal trust, Chairman Park holds the advantage."
A KDB official said they could not confirm whether Chairman Park had a separate tea meeting with the president after the year-end briefing, saying, "We cannot confirm the chairman's personal schedule."