President Lee Jae-myung has nominated Jeong Eun-kyeong, former head of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, as the Minister of Health and Welfare candidate. Candidate Jeong is a leading domestic expert in infectious disease control who led the response to COVID-19 during the Moon Jae-in administration.
Candidate Jeong, from Gwangju, graduated from Seoul National University School of Medicine and obtained a master's degree in public health and a doctorate in preventive medicine from the same university. Since joining the National Institute of Health (the predecessor of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency) in 1995, she has held positions such as Director of the Division of Infectious Disease Information Management, Director of the Disease Policy Division of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and Director of the Disease Prevention Center at the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, actively working at the forefront of public health and infectious disease response. In 2017, she was appointed as the first female head of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Subsequently, Candidate Jeong served as the inaugural Administrator of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency from September 2020, when the agency was upgraded, until May 2022. After the first COVID-19 patient was reported in the country in January 2020, she played a symbolic role in leading the COVID-19 response policies of the Moon Jae-in administration for two years and four months.
After retiring from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency in 2022, she has been working as a clinical professor at Seoul National University School of Medicine since September of the following year. In the recent presidential election, she took on the role of chief campaign committee chair for the Democratic Party of Korea.
As Candidate Jeong became a strong candidate for Minister of Health and Welfare in the Lee Jae-myung government after its launch, suspicions arose regarding her spouse's investment in stocks related to COVID-19, leading to speculation that she might effectively be excluded from the candidate pool. This was due to allegations that Jeong's spouse had made considerable profits by purchasing so-called COVID beneficiaries, including manufacturers of diagnostic kits and masks, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
If Candidate Jeong is ultimately appointed as Minister, she will be the first doctor to hold the position in eight years since former Minister Jeong Jin-youp in 2017, and the first female Minister of Health and Welfare in 14 years since former Minister Jin Soo-hee in 2011. Immediately upon becoming Minister, she is expected to take on the significant task of resolving conflicts between the government and the medical community.
▲Born in 1965 ▲Seoul National University School of Medicine ▲Master of Public Health, Seoul National University ▲Doctor of Preventive Medicine, Seoul National University ▲Director of Emergency Medical Division, Ministry of Health and Welfare ▲Director of Disease Prevention Center, Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ▲Director of Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ▲Clinical Professor, Family Medicine, Seoul National University School of Medicine ▲Chief Election Campaign Committee Chair, Democratic Party of Korea for the 21st Presidential Election