Kangwon Land Inc names Choi Cheol-Gyu interim CEO 

Dec 06, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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Kangwon Land Inc, operator of the Kangwon Land casino resort (pictured), has appointed its vice president, Choi Cheol-Gyu, as interim chief executive.

According to a Tuesday filing to the Korea Exchange, the company said the vice president would perform the new duties “until a new CEO takes office”.

The appointment followed the resignation on Friday of the company’s previous CEO, Lee Sam-Geol. He had been appointed for a three-year term, due to run until April 2024.

The new CEO was described in the filing as a former aide in the Office of the President of the Republic of Korea. He also served previously as a policy advisor to the country’s Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

Kangwon Land, a resort with the only casino in South Korea open to locals, is located in a remote upland area a three-hour drive east of Seoul. Part of its function is to support economically the local community, a former mining district.

South Korean news outlets had reported that politicians, local community representatives, and some of the firm’s personnel, had been calling for Mr Lee to resign.

In June, the government’s annual “public organisation performance evaluation” gave the firm a “D” grade – said to be Kangwon Land Inc’s lowest ever rating. Factors cited included a lack of “customer-attracting content” at the resort, labour cost inefficiencies, workplace sexual harassment and bullying, and corruption related to staff recruitment.

That month also saw the company fined KRW3.23 billion (US$2.5 million currently) for 182 anti-money laundering violations.

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