Government approves Koo Yoon-chul as Samsung Life Insurance director amid officials' review

The Government Employees Ethics Commission approved the re-employment of former Minister Koo Yoon-chul as a non-executive director of Samsung Life Insurance after reviewing the job applications of retired public officials on the 6th.

Accordingly, former Minister Koo is expected to take up his position as a non-executive director of Samsung Life Insurance this month. Koo, who retired in February 2022, had previously received a 'job restriction' notice from the review for the same company's non-executive director position in January of this year but was approved for employment in this review.

The Ethics Commission also approved the re-employment of former Korean Customs Service Administrator Yoon Tae-sik as a non-executive director of Mirae Asset Global Investments.

On this day, the Ethics Commission disclosed the results of employment reviews requested by a total of 119 retired public officials, including former Minister Koo and former Administrator Yoon.

According to the disclosed results, the Ethics Commission decided on 'job restrictions' for three individuals, all of whom are former deputy chiefs of the Korean National Police Agency. The Ethics Commission determined that there was a close correlation between the duties of the departments or agencies they belonged to during the five years prior to their retirement and the anticipated employment institutions. They had attempted to re-employ at law firms YK (special committee member), Yulchon (trainee lawyer), and HwaWoo (trainee lawyer).

The Ethics Commission also ruled against the employment of five individuals whom it determined did not meet the employment approval criteria defined by law. This group included a retired employee from the Financial Supervisory Service looking to take up the position of training center director at the Insurance Training Institute and a retired governmental official from the Military Manpower Administration seeking to become the president of Samyang Chemical Corporation.

In addition, the Ethics Commission requested fines from the competent court for three cases where individuals employed themselves without going through the Ethics Commission's preliminary employment review despite being subject to employment review.