President Lee Jae-myung Approves Request for Confirmation Hearing of KBS President Nominee

President Lee Jae-myung granted final approval on the 6th to the request for a National Assembly confirmation hearing for Lee Tae-hyun, the next president of KBS. On July 20, the KBS board of directors resolved at an extraordinary meeting to nominate Lee, a former head of KBS's content business division, as the candidate for its 28th president. He secured votes from at least two-thirds of the 10 sitting board members.

The nominee, born in 1968, graduated from Korea University with a degree in philosophy and joined KBS as a producer in 1994. He served as head of programming policy and head of the content business division at KBS, and from 2019 led the OTT (internet video streaming) platform Wave as its first CEO for five years and six months. In July of last year, he became CEO of the Hanam Culture Foundation but stepped down after only about six months.

During a Hanam City Council audit of administrative affairs on November 25 last year, city councilor Park Sun-mi raised concerns that the foundation's net surplus of roughly 1 billion won per year had been managed without council review or approval. Park requested the submission of board meeting materials and minutes from 2022 to 2025, as well as records of net surplus expenditures, stating she would reject deliberation of the foundation's 2026 budget if they were not provided. The proposed 2026 budget calculated net surplus at 300 million won.