(profile) Commercial law professor named to lead antitrust regulator

All News 15:07 July 04, 2022

SEOUL, July 4 (Yonhap) -- Song Ok-rial, the nominee for South Korea's new antitrust chief, is an expert well versed in commercial law, who is critical of stricter regulations on companies.

Song, 53, passed the bar exam in 1990 while he was studying law at Seoul National University (SNU).

After passing the exam, he received training at the Judicial Research & Training Institute, together with President Yoon Suk-yeol, the former prosecutor-general.

While at the institute in 1993 and 1994, Song also passed two other state exams to pick senior government officials and diplomats.

Song later earned his master's and doctorate degrees at Harvard Law School in the United States. After returning to South Korea, he worked as a lawyer at law firm Kim & Chang, and became a professor at SNU in 2003.

The nomination of Song as the chief of the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) appears to reflect Yoon's resolve to ease corporate regulations.

In the past, Song criticized the FTC's move to stiffen rules on internal trading of conglomerates as "excessive" regulations.

Yoon has vowed to pursue small government to support private sector-led economic growth and job creation.