National Information Society Agency (NIA) said on Apr. 1 that it held an inauguration ceremony for the 16th president, Kim Hyeong-cheol, at its Daegu headquarters.
Kim, the new president, built a 38-year career spanning grants institutes, the private sector, and the public sector, serving as senior researcher at Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), vice president at Thin Multimedia, national standards coordinator at the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards, program manager at Institute of Information & communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP), and director at the Software Policy & Research Institute (SPRI).
In his inaugural address, President Kim said he would develop NIA into a core think tank for the pan-government AI transformation to leap into the world's top three in AI. He added that the agency would play a central role in driving AI transformation across all sectors, including the public sector, healthcare, and defense, and would faithfully carry out the role of the Artificial Intelligence Policy Center under the Basic AI Act.
He also emphasized that by opening public data in the era of agentic AI, he would lay the foundation for a pan-government AI ecosystem and grow the agency into a specialized institution that leads the latest technology trends, including physical AI.
Immediately after taking office, President Kim is set to receive briefings from each business department to review pending institutional issues. His term is three years, through Mar. 2029.