Minister Han Seong-sook Nominated as Prime Minister Candidate... "Former Naver Executives on the Rise"

Minister Choi Hwi-young and Former AI Chief Ha Jung-woo Also from Naver

The Blue House announced on the 7th that President Lee Jae-myung has nominated Han Seong-sook, Minister of SMEs and Startups, as the new Prime Minister candidate. The photo shows President Lee presenting a certificate of appointment to Minister Han last year and taking a commemorative photo. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

With Han Seong-sook, Minister of SMEs and Startups, being nominated as the second Prime Minister under the Lee Jae-myung administration, the series of appointments of former Naver executives is once again drawing attention.

On the 7th, Kang Hoon-sik, Chief Presidential Secretary, announced during a briefing that President Lee has nominated Minister Han as the next Prime Minister candidate. In the Blue House briefing, Chief Kang explained that the rationale for selecting Han as the candidate was "her experience as CEO of an IT company and as Minister of SMEs and Startups makes her the right person to smoothly accomplish the era-defining task of an AI-driven transformation and to lead the growth of all of South Korea, not just a select group of people."

Han previously served as CEO of Naver in 2017 and was recognized as the first female CEO since the company’s founding. As CEO, she was regarded as a "practical leader" with a calm yet strong leadership style. Born in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, Han took office as the first Minister of SMEs and Startups with the launch of the current administration and has been seen as a prominent example of former Naver executives entering the Blue House.

With Han’s nomination as Prime Minister, the steady advancement of former Naver executives continues to be a topic of discussion. Currently, Choi Hwi-young, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, is also a former Naver executive, having served as Head of Planning at NHN Naver Headquarters, Head of NHN Naver Division, and CEO in charge of NHN’s domestic operations.

Ha Jung-woo, who resigned as the Presidential Senior Secretary for AI Future Planning last April to run in the parliamentary by-elections, is also from Naver, where he was head of the Naver Cloud AI Innovation Center. Although Ha ran in the highly contested Busan Buk-gu Gap parliamentary by-election, he was defeated as independent candidate Han Dong-hoon won the seat.

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, is taking a commemorative photo after a samgyeopsal gathering on June 5th at a barbecue restaurant in Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul with Chey Tae-won, Chairman of SK, Koo Kwang-mo, Chairman of LG, and Lee Hae-jin, Chairman of Naver. Photo by Dongju Yoon

Naver, the country’s largest portal, is expanding its business by strengthening its AI-based search, online advertising, and commerce sectors. The company is accelerating its focus on AI and, by acquiring a stake in Dunamu, is seeking to secure competitiveness in the virtual asset business.

Jensen Huang, NVIDIA CEO who is visiting Korea, will visit the Naver 1784 headquarters building on June 8 to discuss cooperation on AI infrastructure. Previously, on June 5, Huang met with Naver Chairman Lee Hae-jin at a samgyeopsal restaurant in Hongdae, and they are expected to meet again to discuss specific collaboration plans.

Naver and NVIDIA are actively working together to build a global AI factory, strengthening their partnership. Naver plans to go beyond a simple relationship of receiving NVIDIA’s GPU supplies and is set to form a strategic technology alliance encompassing AI infrastructure, models, services, and physical AI.

An industry official stated, "As individuals from the private sector are being appointed to key positions such as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT, Minister of SMEs and Startups, and now Prime Minister, South Korea’s AX transformation is expected to gain further momentum." The official added, "However, due to concerns over the concentration of talent from a single company, it is unlikely that this will have a direct impact on the interests of the company involved."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.