Moon’s recruitment of IT figures welcomed with caution

After naming Naver’s former Executive Yoon Young-chan as chief presidential press secretary, the Moon Jae-in administration is expected to appoint another major IT industry executive to a key presidential post.

Cheong Wa Dae is slated to appoint Jung Hye-seung, vice president of communications at the country’s mobile messaging giant Kakao, to lead the government’s social media and communication campaigns as the presidential secretary for new media, according to local reports Wednesday.

Jung, 46, was a former journalist at the local daily Munhwa Ilbo who later moved to portal website operator Daum Communications Corp., which later merged with Kakao. At Daum, Jung oversaw the firm’s communications with the government and civic groups. For the past year, she has been handling media relations at Kakao.

The Kakao executive is reportedly on vacation and has yet to formally leave her post at the company. However, an industry source who wished to remain anonymous told The Korea Herald that Chung has already begun working for the Blue House, as of Wednesday.

The appointment of key executives from Korea’s most influential IT companies is fueling expectations that the two figures with years of experience in the field of IT could lend a hand in voicing the industry’s biggest needs to the Moon administration.

“As the two figures are both highly knowledgeable about the workings and needs of Korea’s IT industry, hopes are high that their appointment could bring some level of positive influence to the sector,” said an official from an IT company.

However, just how much influence Yoon and Jung will effectively exercise in terms of IT sector policymaking remains unclear, as the two are communications experts tasked with heading the government’s public relations activities.

At the same time, the appointments are fueling concerns that the government -- which said the designations come as part of its move to strengthen its communication with common citizens -- may face a conflict of interest with the country’s internet business and online community.

Naver is the country’s most widely-used portal website and the main go-to source for Koreans reading the news on both online and mobile platforms. Meanwhile, Kakao is Korea’s dominant mobile messaging app used by a majority of the Korean population.

The Blue House has yet to officially announce the Kakao executive’s appointment as presidential secretary for new media. Kakao declined to comment on Jung’ s whereabouts, only confirming that she is currently on vacation.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)