Gap Sook Lee, president of the Busan Port Authority, stepped down from his post this week and was replaced Thursday by Ki Tae Roh, the Korean port said in a statement.
It was expected for some months that Lee, who had served as BPA president since January 2007, would be replaced, as the typical protocol in South Korea is for incoming national presidents to place their own choices in key government positions. That's continued to be the case as new South Korean President Lee Myung Bak was sworn in as the country's president in February.
The national president has had to contend with multiple controversies since taking office, including a truck strike that crippled operations at Busan, Korea's largest port and the fifth-busiest container port in the world.
Lee, the former BPA president, saw Busan through a transitional phase as it opened up its Newport complex, which entailed migrating many of Busan's calls to a set of terminals 15 miles away from the existing port. He's also pushed for Busan to become a transshipment hub for Northeast Asia, feeding off the cargo volumes generated by its powerful neighbors China and Japan.
That work will likely continue as Roh begins as BPA's third president.
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