The decision earlier this week to promote Park Doo-seon from vice president to CEO at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) has attracted sharp criticism from South Korea’s incoming new president.
President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s transition team yesterday hit out at the appointment of Park, who is a friend of outgoing president Moon Jae-in’s brother.
The Blue House, the residency of the president in Seoul, argued that Park was ideally qualified for the role at one of the nation’s top shipbuilders, which has been under the control of state-run Korea Development Bank for the past six years.
Won Il-hee, a deputy spokesman for Yoon’s transition team, said of the DSME appointment: “Even though it superficially went through the board approval procedure of a private company, it is an irrational and shameless move that raises reasonable suspicion that there is actually someone behind the scenes who made the appointment.”
The transition team will ask the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) to review the validity of Park’s appointment.
Park, who has worked at DSME for the past 36 years, has been given a three-year term in charge of the yard.
