The National Election Commission said on the 5th it has decided on former National Intelligence Service Vice Administrator Kim Jun-hwan as the successor to former lawmaker Jeong Eul-ho, who was appointed Blue House senior secretary for political affairs and gave up his proportional-representation seat.
Under Article 200 of the Public Official Election Act, if a vacancy arises in a proportional-representation seat, the election commission determines the successor within 10 days of receiving notification of the vacancy, based on the list of proportional-representation National Assembly candidates of the political party to which the departing lawmaker belonged at the time.
Born in 1962, the former vice administrator served as the National Intelligence Service's 2nd and 3rd vice administrators for three years starting in 2017, during the Moon Jae-in administration. At the National Intelligence Service, Kim joined the Reform and Development Committee and helped transform the agency's domestic intelligence function into units responsible for counterterrorism, counterespionage, transnational organized crime, and security breaches.
In the 22nd general election in 2024, the former vice administrator received the No. 18 spot on the proportional list of the Democratic Party Alliance, which the Democratic Party of Korea created as a satellite party under the semi-mixed-member proportional system. At the time, Kim, a national security expert, was recruited as the "22nd talent for the general election."