Naver has hired former Vice Defence Minister Kim Sun-ho (김선호) as a full-time management adviser.

Industry sources said on Monday that Kim recently completed a post-government employment review and is coordinating his start date with Naver.

The hire is seen as an effort to apply Kim’s experience in defence and government policy to AI transformation (AX) projects in the public and defence sectors and to Naver’s sovereign AI strategy. It is also seen as a move to strengthen the company’s policy response capabilities in related businesses by bringing in someone with a deep understanding of government and military organisations.

Kim, a 43rd graduating class of the Korea Military Academy, was commissioned in 1987 and served in the military for 33 years. He served as director of force planning at the Joint Chiefs of Staff and as commander of the Capital Defence Command, and retired in 2020 as an army lieutenant general. He is regarded as an expert in building military capability with experience in planning requirements for weapons systems and in procurement. He took office as vice minister of defence in October 2023 and served until June last year. In April 2024, while he was vice minister, the Defence AI Center under the Agency for Defence Development was launched. The centre has been responsible for developing AI-based manned-unmanned teaming systems and battlefield situational awareness technologies, and supporting the military’s AI requirements and technology planning.

In July, Naver agreed with Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) to jointly develop a defence-focused AI foundation model, and it is pursuing a 20 billion won defence AI project with Korea University that includes building a Joint Chiefs of Staff AX hub. Naver Cloud has set a plan to expand military-focused AI businesses by setting up a dedicated organisation for defence AX and spreading AI agents across all areas of defence by 2030. With the latest hire, Kim is expected to be involved in analysing domestic and overseas trends in sovereign AI policy and industry, and in establishing strategies for public and defence AX projects.