Lawmaker behind anti-stock-suppression bill nominated as small-business minister

Lee So-young, the lawmaker who designed the original framework for an “anti-stock-suppression law,” has been nominated to become South Korea’s minister of SMEs and Startups.

The Democratic Party’s two-term lawmaker trained as a lawyer and passed the 51st national bar examination. From 2012, she worked at Kim & Chang, focusing mainly on environmental and energy matters. She joined the Democratic Party as a recruited candidate for the 21st general election and won re-election.

Lee recently criticized the government’s tax reform proposal, saying its version of the stock-market measure differed from the purpose of the bill she had originally introduced. She warned that the changes could be misunderstood as a retreat from the government’s reform commitment. President Lee then instructed officials to reconsider the proposal in full.

Other appointments included Lee Won-joo, an energy-transition policy official, as presidential adviser for the newly created Mega Project role. The appointment was viewed as reflecting the government’s assessment that electricity supply would be a central issue in its mega-project plans. Ha Jung-woo, who previously served as the government’s first senior secretary for AI future planning, was also set to oversee the National AI Strategy Committee after losing a by-election in Busan in April.

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There is a risk that this could be misunderstood as a retreat from the will to reform.