Kim Yong-beom has resigned as South Korea’s presidential policy chief, and President Lee Jae Myung has accepted the resignation, extending a wider reshuffle of the administration’s economic and policy leadership. Kim had served as the government’s first policy chief since the administration took office. His departure is the first change at the presidential chief-of-staff level reported since the government began its term.
Kim described the move as a handover rather than a policy statement. In a farewell message shared publicly, he said he had completed his role as the administration’s first policy chief and believed it was time to make room for others to carry the work forward. The presidential office confirmed that he had submitted his resignation the previous day and that Lee accepted it on September 1.
The timing gives the departure wider significance because the policy office coordinates major economic choices across ministries. Several outlets connected the resignation to recent criticism over market and housing policy, including controversy around proposals for single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds. Those reports are interpretations of the political context, not an official explanation for Kim’s decision. The confirmed facts are narrower: he offered his resignation, the president accepted it, and a replacement now has to inherit a policy agenda that is already being reorganized alongside ministerial changes.
The immediate issue is continuity. A new policy chief will have to coordinate the administration’s record 2027 budget, housing measures and financial-market policy while working with newly changed economic ministers. A leadership reset can give the presidential office room to alter priorities or management style, but it also creates transition risk when several economic posts are changing close together. Attention now shifts to the choice of Kim’s successor and whether the appointment signals a substantive policy change or mainly a reorganization of who manages the existing agenda.