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Official who initiated 'MASGA' project receives rare promotion

Published: 27 Feb. 2026, 16:07 Updated: 27 Feb. 2026, 17:19

Hanwha Philly Shipyard staff are seen wearing "Make American Shipbuilding Great Again" ball caps in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Aug. 26, 2025. [YONHAP]

An official at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources who formulated the "Make American Shipbuilding Great Again" (MASGA) proposal, one of the major projects that helped Korea secure its tariff agreement with the United States, has been promoted two notches to the director-general level, the ministry said Friday.

Kim Eui-joong, director of the shipbuilding and offshore plant industry division, was named director general for the manufacturing industry as part of a mass personnel reshuffle taken earlier this week.

A director usually gets promoted to deputy director general before moving up to director general, but Kim skipped the deputy director position, marking an extraordinary career progression in the public service sector, often considered conservative, if not rigid.

The 50-year-old is known to have come up with the idea of the MASGA proposal when the Seoul government was working hard last summer to reach a trade deal with Washington to lower tariffs on the country.

Under the proposal, Seoul has agreed to invest $150 billion to help revitalize the U.S. shipbuilding industry, part of its $350 billion investment commitment to the U.S.

Senior Seoul officials have said the MASGA project played an instrumental role in reaching the framework trade agreement signed in July, under which the United States agreed to lower its reciprocal and auto tariffs on Korea to 15 percent from 25 percent.

Following the personnel reshuffle Thursday, Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan wrote in a social media post that the surprise promotion marked an "unprecedented" case in the ministry's history, noting he had focused on giving bold compensation to those who deliver outstanding results in a bid to make the ministry a more effective and professional organization.

Yonhap