REPORTER’S NOTEBOOKPOSCO Group chairman absent from another presidential event

It's no longer unusual for a POSCO Group chairman to be absent from presidential events, following the transfer of political power.

Just like his predecessor under the previous Yoon Suk Yeol administration, POSCO Group Chairman Chang In-hwa has skipped a series of events held by the Lee Jae Myung government, despite his role as leader of Korea's sixth-largest business group.

While top executives from Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor, LG, Lotte, Hanwha, HD Hyundai, GS, Shinsegae, Hanjin and Doosan participated in Friday's ceremony to celebrate the new government, Chang was not among them.

In addition, POSCO Group did not send the chairman or any executives to the Aug. 11 state dinner for To Lam, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam. The banquet also included senior executives of Korea's leading conglomerates.

When asked about the chairman's absence, POSCO Group denied speculation that he had been uninvited, saying he is currently focusing on establishing measures to prevent industrial accidents. The group was recently rebuked by the president due to repeated accidents at its steel mills and at sites under the supervision of its construction unit, POSCO E&C.

Even before industrial accidents involving POSCO Group affiliates drew public attention, however, Chang had not been seen at the president's meetings with business leaders.

In June, Lee invited only the chairmen of Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor, LG and Lotte to his meeting with conglomerate leaders and heads of Korea's six largest business lobby groups. During the government's efforts to avoid the Donald Trump administration's sectoral tariffs on steel, the POSCO Group chairman was not among the business leaders who had private dinners with the president ahead of the tariff deal signed with the United States on July 30.

Moreover, POSCO Group has not released any photos of Chang since June 19, when it issued a press release about his participation in the Global Steel Dynamics Forum in New York.

The company sent only text on July 31, when the chairman briefed the labor ministry and ruling party lawmakers on the group's plan to prevent the recurrence of industrial accidents. There was also no press release about his Aug. 9 visit to POSCO E&C's expressway construction site, where an electrocution accident happened.

This low-key approach recalled the group's cessation of media updates about then-Chairman Choi Jeong-woo's activities in early 2024, when he failed to be secure a renewal for another term, following opposition from the National Pension Service (NPS), the state pension fund that is the largest shareholder of the group's holding firm. After Chang replaced Choi, POSCO Group resumed updates about its chairman and resumed attending presidential events.

Both the government and the company deny any political intention behind Chang's absence from recent presidential events.

"Those invited to the president's meeting with conglomerate leaders in June were the heads of Korea's five largest business groups," a POSCO Group spokesperson said. "The chairman's inspection of the expressway construction site was his duty, so we did not issue a press release about this unremarkable event."

The spokesperson added that the group's halt in media updates about Choi's activities was because the company was focused more at that time on informing the public about efforts to hire a new leader.

However, there are growing concerns that POSCO Group could once again be subjected to political influence due to its dispersed ownership. Although POSCO was privatized in 2000, the government has continued to influence management of the steelmaker and its affiliates through the NPS.

While it is crucial for POSCO Group to eliminate workplace deaths, the company is facing other crises amid slowdowns in the steel and battery industries, as well as lingering trade tensions with the U.S.

To prevent political pressure from hindering POSCO Group's efforts to navigate these challenges, the government should be more cautious about how it handles the company so it is not seen as attempting to oust the current leadership.