(LEAD) Yoon picks ex-culture minister as special adviser for culture, sports

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday named a former culture minister and actor as his special adviser for culture and sports in a reshuffle that also affected six vice-minister level posts, his office said.

Yoo In-chon, a well-known TV and stage actor who served as culture minister during the Lee Myung-bak administration, was named to the newly established position of special presidential adviser for culture and sports.

Current presidential chief of staff Kim Dae-ki was second vice culture minister during Yoo’s term as culture minister.

Yoo will be only the second formal special adviser to the president, along with Lee Dong-kwan, a former senior presidential secretary for press affairs under President Lee and the current special presidential adviser for external relations.

Yoon also named Cho Hong-sun, an official of the Fair Trade Commission, as vice chair of the antitrust regulator, and Ko Kwang-hyo, an official of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, as chief of the Korea Customs Service.

Kim Yoon-sang, also a finance ministry official, was tapped for chief of the Public Procurement Service, while Lee Hyoung-il, deputy finance minister, was named chief of Statistics Korea.

The reshuffle also saw the nomination of Kim Kyung-ann, chief of a North Jeolla Province chapter of the ruling People Power Party, as head of the Saemangeum Development and Investment Agency, and Kang Hee-up, a standing member of the Metropolitan Transport Commission, as chair of the commission.

Source: Yonhap News Agency