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South Korea picks ex-central bank deputy chief as new governor

By Choonsik Yoo and Se Young Lee

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's president on Monday nominated a former senior deputy chief of the central bank to be its next governor, with the mission of ensuring price stability in Asia's fourth-largest economy.

President Park Geun-hye named Lee Ju-yeol, 61, to succeed Kim Choong-soo as the governor of the Bank of Korea from April 1 after Kim steps down at the end of his term, the presidential office said in a statement.

Korea's Parliament will hold a public hearing on Lee's appointment. Although it has no right to block the appointment, the hearing can still influence public opinion.

In addition to the central bank's main mission of ensuring stability of inflation and financial system, Lee has one more task of restoring the central bank's independence from the government, tarnished over the past few years.

The Bank of Korea's main mission is to ensure inflation and the financial system remain stable. Analysts say they hope Lee will ensure the central bank's independence from government, which some assert has been reduced in the past few years. By law, the central bank is independent.

Lee, who was Kim's deputy for about two years until early 2012, was widely seen as opposing Kim's stance that the central bank was largely part of the government and needed to cooperate with its policies.

Before Lee stepped down at the end of his term, Korean newspapers reported that he said in a letter to central bank employees "I feel responsible for the outside assessment that (the Bank of Korea) has fallen short of carrying out its duty of keeping prices stable."

Lee, an economics professor at Yonsei University, was not immediately available to comment.

(Editing by Richard Borsuk)