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Han Duck-soo, President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s pick for prime minister, enters the presidential transition committee office in Seoul’s Tongui neighborhood on April 3. (pool photo)

Han Duck-soo, the person nominated Sunday to serve as the first prime minister under President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s administration, is an economic official with a career in public service spanning four decades who has held senior-level positions under both conservative and progressive administrations.

Han has established a diverse resume while serving in the administrations of four different presidents: Kim Young-sam, Kim Dae-jung, Roh Moo-hyun, and Lee Myung-bak. In addition to serving as a prime minister once before, he has held positions such as deputy prime minister, Blue House senior presidential secretary, and South Korean ambassador to the US.

If appointed as Yoon’s first prime minister, Han will be returning to that position 15 years after he served as the Roh administration’s last prime minister in 2007.

A native of Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, and a graduate of Seoul’s Kyunggi High School, Han passed the civil service examination while studying economics at Seoul National University. He began his career as a civil servant working for the Korea Customs Service.

While serving as an official with the Economic Planning Board (a previous incarnation of today’s Ministry of Economy and Finance), he left to study in the US, where he earned a master’s and a doctorate in economics from Harvard University.

Nicknamed the “FTA evangelist,” Han is considered a preeminent trade expert. Under the Kim Young-sam administration, he served as head of the trade office in the Ministry of Commerce (now the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy), director of the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), and vice minister of trade and industry. After the Kim Dae-jung administration came to office in 1998, he became its inaugural minister of foreign affairs and trade.

An advocate of openness, competition, and deregulation, he incurred the anger of the South Korean cinema community with his calls for abolishing the screen quota system while pushing for the signing of a South Korea-US investment agreement. While working in 2001 as Blue House senior presidential secretary for economic affairs, he resigned from public service, taking responsibility for the concealment of Chinese garlic import liberalization measures.

But he would eventually come back as head of the government policy coordination office for the Roh administration. He went on to direct duties related to the signing of a South Korea-US free trade agreement, which became one of that administration’s most contentious issues.

Between 2005 and 2006, Han served first as deputy prime minister and minister of finance and then as acting prime minister. He was subsequently appointed to serve as the head of the South Korea-US free trade agreement support committee and special presidential aide on the South Korea-US FTA.

It was also Han who announced the “August 31 Comprehensive Real Estate Measures” while serving as deputy prime minister and minister of finance in 2005. Declaring real estate speculation to be “over,” he proclaimed measures that included heavier comprehensive real estate and transfer income taxes. In 2007, he was appointed as the Roh administration’s final prime minister.

Even after the Roh administration was succeeded by the Lee Myung-bak presidency, Han was named South Korea’s ambassador to the US in 2009. In response to FTA renegotiation demands from the US Democratic Party — which counted automobile workers as a major support base — he famously went around visiting senators from every state to enlist their support.

An FTA implementation bill passed the US Congress with help from then-US Vice President Joe Biden. At the time, Han is said to have formed a friendship with Biden.

After this period in government service, Han spent the years between 2012 and 2015 as chairperson of the Korea International Trade Association (KITA).

Han is known for his amiable personality and diligence, with his meticulous self-management counted among his strengths. He has no children and no blemishes on his military service record — having been discharged honorably as an Army sergeant — and no particular issues have arisen over the course of his numerous confirmation hearings to date.

He is considered a “worldly wise” figure who is not strongly political and remains keenly attuned to administration conditions.

At the time of his appointment as deputy prime minister, he was criticized as being “colorless.” In response, he cited his blood type, calling himself a “‘Type O official in a Type O country,’ playing the role of a catalyst supporting the activities of economic actors from behind the scenes.”

By Park Jong-o, staff reporter

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