A former vice minister for trade and energy was named the new head of the state-run Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP) on Tuesday.

Cho Seok, the former vice minister of trade, industry and energy, was named the new president of the country's sole nuclear power plant operator, the company said in a press release.

Cho, 56, will replace Kim Kyun-seop, who stepped down in June over a corruption scandal, in which substandard parts had been supplied under fake quality certificates in and around 2010, two years before Kim came into office. Kim is not personally implicated in the scandal.

A native of Iksan in North Jeolla Province, Cho joined the administration as a diplomat after graduating from the Seoul National University in 1981.

He stepped down as the vice minister of the then Ministry of Knowledge Economy soon after the incumbent Park Geun-hye administration was inaugurated in February.

The KHNP manages the country's 23 nuclear reactors that supply about 30 percent of all its electricity needs. (Yonhap News)