South Korea finance chief ousted at airport, still flies
Bastillepost · 1 SOURCESabout 2 hours ago5 MIN
Summary
South Korea’s Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and finance minister, Koo Yun-cheol (具潤哲), was already at Incheon airport on August 30 for a flight to the United States when the presidential office announced a cabinet reshuffle replacing him with First Vice Finance Minister Lee Hyoung-il (李炯日). Koo briefly decided to cancel the trip, including a planned bilateral meeting with US Treasury Secretary Bessent, but later reversed course and flew on schedule, with the talks reinstated
Key Points
- Koo had checked in his luggage, cleared security and was waiting at the boarding gate for a flight to Asheville, North Carolina, for the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors’ meeting
- The presidential office said Lee Hyoung-il would succeed him, but also explained that the nominee must go through a parliamentary hearing, so Koo should continue performing his duties until then
- The finance ministry had prepared a statement saying Koo would depart as normal, withdrew it before release, and reissued it about an hour later amid confusion over the trip
- A major backdrop to the reshuffle was controversy over single-stock leveraged ETFs launched in May, allowing two-times leveraged bets on shares such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix
- Citibank estimated South Korean retail investors lost US$38.7 billion, or about 55 trillion won, in the leveraged ETF turmoil; Koo apologised in parliament on July 29 for not fully considering the consequences
Why It Matters
For Hong Kong readers, the episode is a reminder that political turnover can abruptly complicate economic diplomacy even when formal meetings still go ahead. It also underlines how policy missteps in high-risk retail investment products can quickly become a leadership issue in a major Asian economy closely tied to regional markets and technology supply chains