Baek Gyeong-hun (배경훈), deputy prime minister and minister of science and ICT, will meet the heads of the country's three mobile carriers for the first time since taking office in July last year.

Industry officials said on March 12 that Baek is considering a meeting in April at an unspecified location in Seoul with Jae-heon Jeong (정재헌), chief executive of SK Telecom, Yun-young Park (박윤영), KT's incoming CEO nominee, and Beom-sik Hong (홍범식), chief executive of LG Uplus.

The meeting is likely to take place in the first week of April, it is known. If scheduled then, it would be an official debut for Park, who is expected to become KT's new CEO at the company's shareholders meeting on March 31.

In September last year, Baek had planned his first introductory meeting since taking office with You-young Yoo, then chief executive of SKT, Young-seop Kim, chief executive of KT, and Hong, chief executive of LG Uplus, but it fell through.

At the planned meeting, Baek is expected to encourage the three carriers to switch to 5G standalone mode. He may also be asked to expand infrastructure investment to help the country become one of the top three in AI, or to increase security investment as follow-up steps after last year's hacking incident.