The presidential office said on Sunday President Lee Jae-myung (이재명) nominated Minister of SMEs and Startups Han Sung-sook (한성숙) as his candidate for the country's second prime minister.

The presidential office cited a major transition in artificial intelligence as the reason for the nomination. Kang Hoon-sik (강훈식), the presidential chief of staff, said, "Based on her experience as the head of an IT company and as minister of SMEs and Startups, she is expected to be the right person to complete without setbacks the major AI transition, a task of the times, and to lead growth for all of South Korea."

Han started out as an ordinary office worker and rose to become chief executive of Naver, before taking the post of the first minister of SMEs and Startups when Lee's government was launched. During her tenure as minister, she delivered results including the highest-ever level of small business exports and efforts to revitalise the start-up ecosystem. The presidential office said it expects her experience as minister to contribute to turning growth driven by a semiconductor boom and rising exports into broader growth for the public, including small and medium-sized enterprises, small merchants and local commercial districts.

Lee was also reported to have reviewed a pool of 3 candidates including Han, Kang and Justice Minister Jung Sung-ho (정성호).

If Han clears parliamentary approval, she would become the second woman prime minister in constitutional history after former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook under the Roh Moo-hyun government, and the first woman prime minister in 19 years.

Kang, for his part, praised the work of first Prime Minister Kim Min-seok (김민석), saying he "overcame an insurrection and led the recovery of South Korea".