Park Won Shik will join the board as senior deputy governor on April 8, subject to the president’s approval, the central bank said in a statement yesterday. Park replaces Lee Ju Yeol, whose term is expiring. Three other members of the seven-person body finish on April 20.

The Bank of Korea has kept interest rates unchanged for eight straight months as officials balance inflation risks against the threat to Asia’s fourth-biggest economy from an export slowdown. Board changes may make it harder for economists and investors to pick the next move.

“The board change adds uncertainty to market players,” said Kim Nam Hyun, a Seoul-based fixed-income analyst at Eugene Investment & Futures.

Besides the scheduled replacements, one seat has been vacant since April 2010. Governor Kim Choong Soo, who said in a January interview that rates remain “accommodative” and shouldn’t stay that way for “a long period of time,” is near the half-way point of his four-year term.

On Feb. 9, the Bank of Korea kept the benchmark seven-day repurchase rate unchanged at 3.25 percent.

“Although our economy is in a difficult situation, it will return to a long-term growth trend,” Kim said at the time. “We will stay on alert to price gains as inflation expectations are still considerably high.”

In other moves at the bank, chief economist Kim Jun Il and directors general Kang Juno, Kang Tae Soo and Kim Jong Hwa will become deputy governors in April, the central bank said in the statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eunkyung Seo in Seoul at eseo3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Panckhurst at ppanckhurst@bloomberg.net

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-21/bank-of-korea-reshuffle-to-put-new-board-members-in-majority-from-april.html

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