Korea: Is era of ‘Mofia’ gone under Park administration? The compound word of an acronym of the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and mafia referred to the financial bureaucrats who dominated key positions and wielded great influence in the local financial sector

Is era of ‘Mofia’ gone under Park administration?

By Yi Whan-woo

Is the era of “mofia” gone?

The compound word of an acronym of the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and mafia referred to the financial bureaucrats who dominated key positions and wielded great influence in the local financial sector.

Seemingly, the mofia don’t have the same level of power under the Park Geun-hye administration as in the past.

Park’s recent selection of her top financial nominees has raised speculation that she may not rely on the officials who built their careers at the finance ministry.

Of the six major economic posts, only the Financial Services Commission will be headed by Shin Je-yoon who began his bureaucratic career at the ministry. Five others, including deputy prime minister, chief economic advisor for the President, strategy planning and economic secretaries, will be headed by those who started their career at the Economic Planning Board (EPB), which was dissolved in 1994.

Park’s appointment is in contrast to her predecessor Lee Myung-bak, who preferred the mofia to use their expertise and influence to nurture the country’s financial sector. Observers say her selection stems from Park’s vision for welfare policy that requires advice from macroeconomic experts from the EPB, which spearheaded rapid economic growth during the rule of Park Chung-hee, the late father of Park Geun-hye.

Shin, 54, served as vice finance minister before he was tapped by Park as the top financial regulator.

Of the five others, Korea Development Institute President Hyun Oh-seok was nominated as the minister of strategy and finance and also will concurrently serve as deputy prime minister. Hyun, 62, began his career as an economist at the EPB in the 1970s although he worked at the finance ministry after the EPB was scrapped.

Cho Won-dong, the nominee for Park’s chief economic advisor, has served as the president of Korea Institute of Public Finance, a state-run tax research center. Cho, 56, worked at the EPB in the early 1980s and has expertise on tax.

Hong Nam-ki will serve as the strategy planning secretary for Park while Joo Hyung-hwan was named as the secretary for the economic and financial affairs. Hong, 52, was the director general of the policy coordination bureau at the finance ministry, and built his career as a budget planner at the EPB.

Joo, 51, was the deputy finance minister and started his bureaucratic career at the EPB’s general affairs division.

Kim Dong-yeon, tapped as a minister at the Prime Minister’s Office, was one of the two vice finance ministers with Shin. Unlike Shin, Kim, 55, began his career at the EPB in the 1980s.