Members of South Korea’s opposition People Power Party (PPP) have criticized the recent appointment of Kim Do-gyun as CEO of Kangwon Land during a parliamentary audit of the Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs and Startups Committee, arguing the appointment process did not follow traditional rules.
Kim is a former chairman of the ruling Democratic Party’s Gangwon provincial chapter and had served as a senior regional party figure until his appointment as Kangwon Land CEO in August.
Although questioning of his position is likely politically motivated, Kangwon Land’s operations have been heavily scrutinized across the board in recent weeks following the release of public data by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
The integrated resort, renowned as the only casino in Korea at which locals are permitted to gamble, is a joint promotional project run by the national government and province of Gangwon-do for the region’s abandoned mine area district, with around 55% owned by government and public sector entities.
According to local media reports, representatives of the PPP this week questioned Kim’s expertise in running a casino resort, as well as his political neutrality, with Rep. Cho Ji-yeon stating, “Although the recruitment notice explicitly required candidates to possess extensive knowledge and experience in integrated resorts and the tourism industry, CEO Kim was appointed after receiving exceptionally high scores – 96.25 in the document review and 93.25 in the interview.
“These scores would be mathematically impossible to achieve even with perfect marks in four out of the five evaluation categories (each worth 20 points), excluding the category for knowledge and experience in integrated resorts and tourism.”
Cho has demanded submission of the evaluation reports for all CEO candidates.
Fellow PPP member, Rep. Choi Soo-jin, added, “The Kangwon Land labor union has described this as a ‘parachuted appointment’ – lacking justification, professional expertise, administrative competence and moral standing. How can the company be managed effectively under these circumstances?
“Without any explanation or justification, the Ministry scrapped the entire selection process from last year – which had yielded five qualified candidates – and initiated a new recruitment process to install the current CEO.”
Rep. Seo Ji-young said, “It is very difficult to understand whether a former military officer as CEO, a former National Intelligence Service official as standing auditor and a former politician as vice president possess the appropriate backgrounds to manage Kangwon Land.”
In response, Kim said he was doing his “absolute best” in the role and diverted further questions alleging he had recently attended events with Democratic Party members, insisting these were “not matters to be addressed here.”
He added, “I am doing my absolute best as the CEO of Kangwon Land, and I will continue to do so.”
Kim also revealed the company was investigating the alleged misuse of company funds amid revelations that Kangwon Land employees had charged more than KRW900 million (US$679,000) to corporate credit cards at wine bars, bakeries, pubs and butcher shops on public holidays and weekends.
“We are currently conducting a comprehensive, company-wide investigation,” he said. “We will take stern follow-up measures based on the results.”
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