The Office of the Prime Minister said on the 3rd that Na Seung-chul (photo, Judicial Research and Training Institute class 35) will begin duties as the new civil affairs chief on the 4th.
The civil affairs chief is a Grade-1 senior civil servant who assists the prime minister. The civil affairs chief oversees discipline in the civil service and checks state affairs issues, and is called one of the "three chiefs of the Prime Minister's Office" along with the public affairs chief and the political affairs chief. Because the chief meets frequently with the prime minister to discuss major state affairs issues, some also call the role the prime minister's "secret inspector."
According to the Prime Minister's Office, Na, the new Deputy Minister, was born in 1977 and is from Seoul. After graduating from Dankook University High School and the Department of Law at Korea University, Na earned a master's degree in law at the same university. Na also majored in economics at the Korea National Open University. Na passed the 45th bar exam and is in class 35 of the Judicial Research and Training Institute.
Na, the new Deputy Minister, served as defense counsel from the first trial through the final appeal in the case involving President Lee's remarks about the "forcible hospitalization of his elder brother," which was tried under the Public Official Election Act. When Lee ran for Gyeonggi governor in 2018, Na headed the campaign's legal support team.
In Mar. 2018, together with Lee, then a preliminary candidate for Gyeonggi governor, Na filed a constitutional petition arguing that Article 6 of the Political Funds Act, which entirely prohibited the establishment of support committees by preliminary candidates in local elections, was unconstitutional, and won a decision of incompatibility with the Constitution.
After Lee became Gyeonggi governor, Na served as an advisory attorney for Gyeonggi Province, Gyeonggi Housing & Urban Development Corporation (GH), and the Gyeonggi Arts Center, among others. Na also served as defense counsel in the so-called "Hye-gyung-gung Kim" case, which involved allegations of a connection to Ms. Kim.