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November’s G20 summit has spared Yoon Jeung-hyun’s life as the longest serving finance minister since the days of military leadership.
Yoon survived Sunday’s major cabinet reshuffle by President Lee Myung-bak, mainly because of his role at the coming G20 summit and its preparation process. Chin Dong-soo, the chairman of the Financial Services Commission, and Kim Jong-chang, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, were also saved from the reshuffle.
If Yoon can stay put until November, he will be the longest-serving finance minister since 1993. Appointed at the height of the global recession on February 2009, Yoon has been leading the finance ministry for 18 months.
It is a laudable feat, considering the average tenure of Korea’s finance minister is about 14 months.
Yoon was credited for leading the Korean economy in a relatively better form through the financial crisis. He is also playing the role of the spokesperson and “consensus builder” at the G20 meetings this year, ahead of November’s summit meeting.
And with two more months, Yoon’s tenure will match that of Jin Nyeom, who served the post for 20 months between 2000 and 2002 under former president Kim Dae-jung.
Before Sunday’s reshuffle, he was widely believed to keep his position until the summit.
“The presidential office is not likely let Yoon go at least until the G-20 summit, because he has built up good relationship with foreign finance ministers. In such diplomatic affairs, having personal acquaintance is critical,” a government intelligence official had told The Korea Times in July.
His start was not so auspicious. At the National Assembly hearing, he was tormented by opposition party lawmakers on inheritance tax evasion and dubious property investment. He admitted the first offence, and pleaded innocent on the second charge. His explanation to the assembly representatives was that his wife bought the farmland since the couple had planned to retire from city life after their son’s suicide.
Yoon is the second finance minister in this administration after Kang Man-soo.
In the 62-year history of Korea, only two among 54 finance ministers have served more than three years. In recent years, Cho Soon (Dec. 1988 Mar. 1990) and Choi Gak-kyu (Feb. 1991 Feb. 1993) managed to fill two years each, under army general-turned President Roh Tae-woo.
The high turnover in the finance minister’s job is not unique to Korea. Yoon, the finance minister, himself lamented that he wished his Japanese counterpart at G-20 could work long enough together. Japan had replaced its finance minister on the eve of the G20 ministers’ meeting in Busan in June, which baffled Yoon and other participants.
The United Kingdom, too, brought in a new chancellor ahead of the Busan meeting as its government saw a regime shift from a labor to a conservative party. “I’m sorry because I and the former British chancellor have worked together for such a long time and we have built up strong trust on each other,” Yoon had told reporters after the meeting.
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