Ex-university chief tapped to lead veterans ministry
Kang Jung-ai, the nominee for Korea's new veterans minister, speaks at the presidential office in central Seoul, Dec. 4.
Kang Jung-ai, the nominee for Korea's new veterans minister, is a former chief of a women's university in Seoul and known for her background as the daughter of a decorated veteran of the 1950-53 Korean War.
Kang comes from a family of veterans, with her father being a recipient of the Order of Military Merit for his participation in the three-year conflict.
Her grandfather-in-law, Kwon Jun, is known for being a member of the Heroic Corps, an independence activist organization against Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea.
Born in Seoul in 1957, Kang majored in business at Sookmyung Women's University and earned a doctorate degree in human resources economics from the Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne University.
She became a professor at her alma mater in Seoul in 1988 and served as the president of the university from 2016 to 2020.
As an economics expert, Kang previously served as a member of the presidential Regulatory Reform Committee and the National Economic Advisory Council under the previous conservative Lee Myung-bak administration.
If Kang assumes the post, she will be the second woman to lead the veterans ministry after Pi Woo-jin, who served in the role from 2017 to 2019. (Yonhap)