KEPCO shareholders name new chief

SEOUL, Sept. 16 (Yonhap) -- Shareholders of the state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) on Friday named Kim Joong-kyum, a former head of Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co., as its new chief. The nomination will be taken up for approval by President Lee Myung-bak, who also served as president of Hyundai Engineering & Construction before joining politics in 1992. "Kim Joong-kyum, who has been elected the new president (of KEPCO), will be nominated by the minister of knowledge economy and will take the office for a three-year term following the president's approval," KEPCO said in a released statement. Kim, a native of Sangju in southeastern North Gyeongsang Province, will replace Kim Ssang-su, who stepped down immediately after his term expired last month in an apparent show of his anger at the government for dismissing his requests during his term to link electricity prices to energy prices. The former KEPCO president was sued last month by a group of 13 shareholders of KEPCO for 2.8 trillion won (US$2.52 billion) in damages to the country's sole power service provider due to what the plaintiffs claimed was his failure to adequately raise electricity prices. Electricity prices were raised three times during Kim's three-year term but at a much slower pace than KEPCO and its former president had requested as electricity prices are ultimately decided by the government. The current electricity tariff only represents about 90 percent of production costs, according to KEPCO.