Tech expert from Naver named inaugural senior secretary for AI

Ha Jung-woo, head of Naver AI Innovation Center, speaks during the Korea Forum 2024 at Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry headquarters in central Seoul, May 2, 2024. Ha was appointed as the new senior presidential secretary for artificial intelligence. Korea Times photo by Choi Joo-yeon

President Lee Jae-myung on Sunday appointed the government’s first senior presidential secretary for artificial intelligence (AI), naming an expert leading the AI division at internet giant Naver.

The president also named three deputy directors of national security, appointing a reformist as the first deputy director who is in charge of military affairs.

According to the presidential office, Lee named Naver AI Innovation Center Head Ha Jung-woo as senior secretary for AI affairs, a position that was newly created upon Ha’s appointment.

It is the first time for the country’s presidential office to have a senior secretary with a mandate to handle the country’s investments and policies for AI infrastructure. The senior secretary will be reporting to the chief of staff for policy.

Ha is known as a vocal advocate for AI sovereignty, believing Korea needs independent AI capability, and has been calling for stronger policy support, diplomatic efforts and nationwide investment in AI infrastructure.

In recent lectures, Ha has been stressing that the government needs a strategy to secure AI accelerators and provide them to domestic AI firms, who would in turn release Korean large language models (LLMs) as open source to help grow the local ecosystem.

On June 8, he wrote on Facebook that “becoming an AI powerhouse isn’t achievable by domestic efforts alone” and “it is crucial for Korea to lead a coalition of middle-power countries concerned about technological dependence.”

“It would be ideal to raise the initiative at the upcoming G7 summit and follow up with a concrete action road map at the APEC meeting in October.”

Ha earned his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in computer science from Seoul National University and spent nine years as a key research leader at Naver’s AI division. He led the development and commercialization of Naver’s Korean LLM through his roles at the CLOVA AI Research and AI Innovation Center.

From left are first deputy director of national security Kim Hyun-jong, second deputy director of national security Lim Woong-soon, third deputy director of national security Oh Hyun-joo and senior presidential secretary for artificial intelligence affairs Ha Jung-woo. Yonhap

Along with Ha, the president named former chief of staff of the Ground Operations Command Kim Hyun-jong as the first deputy national security director.

The retired three-star general previously served as the presidential secretary for defense reform during the 2017-22 liberal Moon Jae-in government. Given that background, Kim was named as a point man for Lee’s attempt to reform military units that were mobilized for martial law operations during the previous Yoon Suk Yeol administration.

For the second deputy national security director, who will be in charge of foreign affairs and diplomacy, Lee named Ambassador to Canada Lim Woong-soon.

Lim previously served as political minister at the Korean Embassy in Washington and deputy consul general at the Consulate General in New York.

Ambassador to the Vatican Oh Hyun-joo was named third deputy national security director, a post responsible for economic security. Oh is Korea’s first female ambassador to the Vatican and previously served as director-general for development cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.