Korea Zinc Faces National Pension Service Vote Opposing Internal Director Reappointment

South Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS) has decided how it will vote at Korea Zinc’s upcoming annual general meeting, effectively opposing the reappointment of Choi Yun-beom as an internal director amid an ongoing governance dispute. The decision was disclosed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare on Friday.

The NPS Trustee Responsibility Committee held its fifth meeting to determine voting directions for 13 companies, including Korea Zinc, HS Hyosung Advanced Materials, LG Electronics, POSCO FutureM, and Naver. The committee’s guidance covers how the pension fund will exercise its voting rights at each company’s shareholder meeting.

For Korea Zinc, the committee will not exercise votes on the agenda items that would appoint Choi as an internal director, as well as appointments of external director Hwang Deok-nam and non-executive director Park Byung-Uk. The decision uses Korea Zinc’s concentrated voting system, which allows shareholders to cast votes for specific candidates rather than for full slates.

The committee also explicitly opposed the election of audit committee candidates Kim Bo-young and Lee Min-ho. In other cases, it will distribute voting rights for certain director candidates: half of the votes will be allocated to MBK Partners’ Korea Investment Holdings slate (최연석, 최병일, 이선숙), and half to a Crusible JV slate (Walter Field McRalren), with the split applied to one director.

In addition, the committee approved Korea Zinc’s financial statements and changes to the company’s articles of incorporation. It opposed the internal-director appointment of Jo Hyun-sang, vice chairman of HS Hyosung Advanced Materials, citing concerns over multiple roles and potential harm to corporate value or shareholder rights, and it warned that reducing the board size could undermine the aims of recent corporate governance reforms.

The panel also rejected the internal-director appointment of Jin Ok-dong, the chairman of Shinhan Financial Group, on similar grounds of harming corporate value or shareholder rights. Separately, it opposed increasing the cap on director compensation for Naver, KB Financial Group, and HiteJinro, arguing the proposed amounts did not appear commensurate with performance.

MBK Partners and the YoungPoong Group, via its YPC affiliate, issued a joint statement criticizing the outcome as a signal that governance structure and internal controls need fundamental reassessment, beyond a simple ownership dispute. They said the pension fund’s decision highlights the necessity of reassessing decision-making processes, board operations, and audit functions to protect long-term value and shareholder rights.

For U.S. readers, the episode underscores how governance and ownership dynamics in a major Korean industrial conglomerate affect global supply chains and investment sentiment. Korea Zinc is a key producer in a sector tied to electronics, automotive, and energy technologies, with zinc and related metals playing a role in critical-material supply chains. The NPS’s voting stance, and the involvement of private equity groups in Korea Zinc’s board dynamics, can influence not only Korea’s corporate governance standards but also international investors’ confidence and the company’s ability to attract capital. The broader context, including recent IEA discussions on core mineral supply chains, highlights how governance and funding decisions in Korea feed into global considerations of security, policy, and market stability for critical minerals.