South Korea's Lee administration nominates former ”coronavirus warrior” Jeong Eun-kyeong as candidate for Minister of Health and Welfare - Hopes rise but suspicions emerge about her husband

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung recently named Jeong Eun-kyung, who has been on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the candidate for the first Minister of Health and Welfare under his administration.
The government has appointed Eun-kyeong (60) as the new head of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Expectations are high for the appointment of Chung, who was once called a "coronavirus warrior" and has been attracting attention for her efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, there have been many comments about Chung's husband, who has been accused of being a "coronavirus warrior" during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Suspicions have surfaced about the investments made in mask and testing kit related stocks in the country. The Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reported that "the person who was the symbol of COVID-19 prevention has been held back by suspicions of his family's pursuit of personal gain through the disease."
Jeong is a doctor who graduated from Seoul National University's School of Medicine. He joined the public service in 1995 as a researcher at the National Institute of Health, and has since served as head of the emergency medical division at the Ministry of Health and Welfare and director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
When the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) epidemic broke out in South Korea in 2015, he was in charge of crisis management, but was disciplined for failing to prevent the spread of the virus.
The Moon Jae-in administration appointed Chung as head of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Speaking of Chung, he was the first person in South Korea to be confirmed as infected with the coronavirus in January 2020, and as head of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he was in charge of the most important task of fighting the coronavirus.
He is known as a person who led the command on the front lines. In the early stages of the epidemic, he was busy with daily press conferences and other activities. A reporter asked him a question expressing concern about his health, saying, "I heard that you haven't even slept an hour."
At the time, he said, "I sleep for more than an hour." This was reported in Japan. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was upgraded to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in September of the same year. Chung became the first director of the agency.
He was also named one of the "100 Most Influential People" by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In May 2022, Chung stepped down as head of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when the then-presidential Yoon Seok-yeol administration came to power.
While he criticized the quarantine policy of the previous Moon administration as a "political quarantine," Chung, who attended a general meeting of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee before stepping down, said, "Vaccines and treatments are conducted through clinical trials, and policies are implemented based on evidence.
"Social distancing (the quarantine measure taken by South Korea) is a policy that requires social consensus and political judgment. I don't think it's appropriate to distinguish between scientific quarantine and political quarantine," he countered.
Upon Chung's retirement, voices of appreciation for his efforts were sent from all quarters, including the public. Former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon wrote on his social media account at the time, "I am grateful to Chung for building the Republic of Korea into a leading nation in COVID-19 prevention."
"I am grateful to Director Jeong for always explaining the COVID-19 situation and quarantine policies in an easy-to-understand manner, even sacrificing time to style his hair or eat lunch to focus on his work," Lee said.
"He will long be remembered as a model public official. Director Jeong has become a figure who symbolizes the Moon Jae-in administration's successful disease prevention efforts," he said.
After retiring, Chung served as a research committee member for infectious disease policy at Seoul National University Hospital in Bundang.
In June 2023, he became a clinical professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Seoul National University's College of Medicine and taught at the podium. In the presidential election held on the 3rd of last month, he served as the general election strategy chairman of the Democratic Party of Korea's Central Election Strategy Committee.
President Lee, who won the presidential election, began selecting his cabinet members last month and nominated Chung as minister of health and welfare. Chung and other nominated cabinet members will be answering questions from lawmakers in the National Assembly.
He will be officially appointed after a hearing on the above points. In South Korea, the medical community rebelled against the previous administration's plan to increase the number of students admitted to university medical schools last year. Resident doctors left their jobs en masse, causing chaos in the medical field.
In addition, medical students were forced to take a mass leave of absence. The Yoon administration at the time decided to increase the number of students admitted to medical schools this year, but indicated that it would return the number of students to the previous level for the 2014 academic year.
Although Tondo has returned to school, he refuses to attend classes, and the conflict between the government and medical students continues. Jeong has been nominated as the Minister of Health and Welfare, which will also deal with the series of issues surrounding the quota for medical school admissions.
The appointment of Chung as medical director has raised concerns about whether the government and the medical community will be able to resolve the conflict.
"We hope that this will be a sincere departure point for the restoration and reconstruction of the system," he said. Meanwhile, suspicions have emerged regarding Chung's husband's investment in mask and testing kit stocks related to COVID-19.
According to a South Korean newspaper report, during the COVID-19 pandemic, while Chung was urging people to wear masks and use self-testing kits, her husband, who is also a doctor, was buying stocks in a company that produces related products.
The Chosun Ilbo, which first reported this, said, "The public official's asset registration items from 2017 to 2022, when Jeong was employed, included the ownership of Cha, a company that produces ethyl alcohol, a raw material for hand sanitizer, under her husband's name.
"It was stated that he held approximately 5,000 shares of 'Nhe Ethanol,'" she said, before adding, "It was discovered through personnel verification that my husband held other COVID-19-related stocks at the time."
It was also revealed that the documents related to Chung's assets that he recently submitted to the Presidential Office contained some omissions and listed amounts less than the actual amount he received.
Regarding the reports about her husband, Chung said, "There are many inaccuracies," and added, "I will clarify the facts at the hearing."