Song Hyun-seung, a director of Yonhap Infomax, has been tapped as the new president and chief executive of Yonhap News Agency, South Korea’s key news service, company officials said.

A CEO screening committee of the News Agency Promotion Foundation, Yonhap’s largest shareholder, agreed to recommend Song as the single candidate for the top post of Yonhap News after interviewing three candidates in a meeting on Thursday.

Song is scheduled to be formally elected as president and CEO of Yonhap News during a shareholders meeting slated for March 15, they said. Song, if elected, will replace Park Jung-chan and complete his remaining two years of tenure.

Song joined Yonhap in 1983 and had long served in the company’s key posts, including editor of the city and political desks, and as managing director before moving to Yonhap Infomax, the financial news and market intelligence arm of Yonhap News, in 2006. (Yonhap News)

Yonhap News Agency is South Korea’s key newswire service that produces content for newspapers, broadcasters, Internet portals, the government and private enterprises, distributing some 3,000 news articles per day.

Yonhap has 62 reporting staff in 46 major cities in 35 countries as well as the most extensive nationwide network in South Korea, and provides daily news in Korean, English, Chinese, Japanese, French, Arabic and Spanish. (Yonhap News)