It is understandable that Dongbu Group, amid rising pressure for restructuring, may want to recruit fresh figures for a change but the appearance of a former senior lawmaker is nevertheless abrupt, especially when he is an outlander to its business.
Officials announced on Monday that Choi Yeon-hee, former fourth-term lawmaker of the ruling conservative Saenuri Party, has been named as chairman for the construction and agriculture business sectors.
He will thus be one of the group’s three joint chiefs, along with conventional chairman Kim Jun-ki and former Science Minister Oh Myeong, who became president and CEO of Dongbu HiTek last year.
But unlike Oh, who has a doctorate in electronic engineering and a long career in scientific sectors, Choi has no experience in business management, let alone construction and agriculture.
The closest thing he had to a corporate career was his close ties with the Dongbu Group chairman who comes from Choi’s hometown of Donghae, according to industry sources.
The appointment came at a particularly difficult time as creditors last week issued an ultimatum on the debt-ridden Dongbu to sell off its key business units in a bid to secure liquidity.
To respond to the mounting anxiety of the financial authorities, chairman Kim recently gestured that he would accelerate the restructuring involving its lucrative steel business.
Currently, the nation’s largest steelmaker POSCO is seeking to purchase a steel mill owned by Dongbu Steel in Incheon, a deal expected to greatly improve the impoverished conglomerate’s financial status.
This was why Oh and Choi were recruited as joint chiefs, the former for semiconductors and the latter for construction and agriculture, according to officials.
Observers, however, are skeptical of whether a former criminal lawyer and conservative lawmaker may give a fresh breath to Dongbu Group or its struggling construction and agriculture business.
This skeptic view was further boosted by the fact that Choi disgracefully departed from the Saenuri Party in 2006 on charges of sexual harassment. He was also fined for illicit dealings with a savings bank.
After passing the bar exam in 1972 and working as judge, prosecutor and private lawyer, Choi joined the political circles in 1996 as the representative of Donghae-Samcheok, Gangwon Province, and member of the Grand National Party, the former body of the Saenuri Party.
During his first three terms, Choi served in high-ranking posts such as chairperson of the parliamentary legislation and judiciary committee and the GNP’s secretary-general.
The lawmaker, however, stained his political career in 2006 by sexually harassing a female journalist. His excuse that he had mistaken the journalist as the restaurant owner only further provoked the public and pushed him to step down from his post as secretary-general.
He then broke away from the party but won his fourth parliamentary term as an independent candidate in the next general election.
In addition to his past disgrace as a sexual harasser, Choi was also handed down a fine of 5 million won ($4,800) and a penalty of 20 million won last year for taking illicit political funds from a former savings bank chief.
By Bae Hyun-jung (
tellme@heraldcorp.com)