Hello, I'm David Plott, Emlex's managing editor for Asia. Welcome to this latest in our series of podcasts, our first from South Korea.

Today we head to Seoul for a look at what may prove to be an important change in the business environment there.

Now you'll recall that South Korea's former president was removed from office in a corruption

scandal back in March. And after that, an election ushered in a new government. Well, with that new

government, naturally enough, have come new political appointments. And one of those appointments

brought in a new man to head up the country's antitrust regulator.

That's Kim Sang-jo, the new chief of the Korea Fair Trade Commission.

Less than a month into his job, he's already got some profile,

and it seems that change is coming to the agency.

With me now to discuss Kim, the commission and the kinds of developments

ahead in South Korea's antitrust landscape is Emlex correspondent Donby Lee in Seoul.

Welcome to this podcast, Donby. Thanks, David. Donby, Kim comes to the KFTC with some pretty

heavyweight backing from South Korea's new president. What can you tell

us about him?

So unlike the past KFTC chairman who was from the KFTC, Kim Sangjo is a former professor

and a former advisor for a civic group called People Solidarity for Participatory Democracy,

which is known to combat unfair

business practices. Now, Kim was widely known for his antitrust-related activities that dealt

mostly with Chebels, which are South Korea's family-owned business group, where he strongly

protested against their unfair business practices and governance structure.

Also, he's been a close person to the new President Moon Jay-In as Kim helped outline the economic

blueprint in the presidential campaign in regards to the KFDC. So he was already the KFTC chairman

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