Yoon taps economics expert as population planning aide

You Hye-mi, nominee for senior presidential secretary dedicated to addressing South Korea's population crisis (Yonhap)

President Yoon Suk Yeol's office announced Thursday it has established a new senior presidential secretary position dedicated to addressing South Korea's population crisis.

Yoon's office also said You Hye-mi, an economics professor at Hanyang University, was appointed as the inaugural senior secretary tasked with tackling South Korea's low birth rate and addressing the nation's demographic challenges.

Chung Jin-suk, Yoon's chief of staff, told reporters that You's position will serve as a "control tower" handling population-related policymaking, as Seoul looks to revise a law to create a new deputy prime minister position for population planning in the Cabinet.

You, 47, earned a doctor's degree in economics at the University of Rochester in New York in 2009. Previously, she studied economics at Seoul National University.

Before joining the presidential office, she was an assistant professor of economics at the State University of New York at Buffalo and professor at Hanyang University.

You, mother to twin elementary-student sons, said she would consult and coordinate with multiple ministries as she assumes the post, given that the demographic change has an overarching impact on policies related to economic growth, fiscal health, employment, education and welfare. You added she would be engaged in the preparation for the launch of the new population planning ministry in Korea.

Joining You as presidential secretaries are Choi Han-kyeung, a senior official of the Finance Ministry and Choi Jong-kyun, vice commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. Each will be tasked with the budget planning and the work-family balance policymaking, respectively, according to a senior official of the presidential office Thursday.

The three will start working at the presidential office Friday.

Yoon's office also announced that it tapped Lee Sang-deok, South Korea's ambassador to Indonesia, as the new head of the Overseas Koreans Agency succeeding Lee Key-cheol.