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Former Lawmaker Choi Jae-cheon Appointed as New Chairman of East Asia Cultural Center, Succeeding Noh Jae-heon

[비즈한국] It has been confirmed that Choi Jae-cheon, a former lawmaker of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, has been appointed as the chairman of the East Asia Cultural Center. The founding chairman of the East Asia Cultural Center was Noh Jae-heon, the Ambassador to China and the eldest son of the late former President Roh Tae-woo. The East Asia Cultural Center is a foundation established in 2012 with contributions from Roh Soh-yeong, director of Art Center Nabi, and is dedicated to promoting private-sector exchanges and cooperation among East Asian countries, including China and Japan.

The East Asia Cultural Center appointed former lawmaker Choi Jae-cheon as the successor after Chairman Noh Jae-heon was appointed as the first ambassador to China under the Lee Jae-myung administration on the 16th. Choi served as a member of the 17th and 19th National Assembly and is currently working as the representative attorney at the law firm Heritage. He also serves as an outside director for Samsung Card029780 and as an advisor to the Kim Dae-jung Peace Center.

Choi Jae-cheon had a close relationship with the late former President Kim Dae-jung. He served as a legal advisor to Kim and handled his defense during the retrial request for the Kim Dae-jung rebellion conspiracy case in 2003. Former President Kim was ultimately acquitted in 2004.

Given that Ambassador Noh Jae-heon is the eldest son of former President Roh Tae-woo, it could be said that Choi was from a politically opposing camp, but the two appear to be close in reality. When Ambassador Noh established the foundation "Roh Tae-woo Center for the Era of Ordinary People" in 2022, Choi served as one of its board members.

Ambassador Noh has shown friendly gestures toward the late former President Kim Dae-jung. He enrolled in the Kim Dae-jung Political School in 2023 and visited and paid his respects at Kim's grave this past August. Analysts suggest that this atmosphere is reflected in Ambassador Noh's appointment as Ambassador to China under the Lee Jae-myung administration.

However, because the suspicions regarding the concealment of former President Roh Tae-woo's slush funds have not been clearly resolved, the view of Ambassador Noh from the Democratic Party of Korea and civil society is not entirely positive. Ambassador Noh was selected as a witness for last year's parliamentary audit but did not attend. Criticizing him at the time, Democratic Party lawmaker Jung Chung-rae stated, "It warrants aggravated punishment to blatantly appear at a book launch and take photos with a smile while failing to appear as a witness before the National Assembly." In July of this year, the civic group "Committee for the Promotion of National Treasury Recovery of Military Regime Criminal Proceeds" filed a complaint against Ambassador Noh with the National Tax Service.