candidate for the position of new chairman to lead the world's fifth-biggest steelmaker, an official said Saturday.

The steelmaker's board of directors made the decision earlier in the day, POSCO spokesman Kang Min-suk said.

Choi is subject to approval at an extraordinary shareholders' meeting and a meeting of its board of directors on July 27 before taking the top post at POSCO.

Choi Jeong-woo, the head of POSCO's affiliate Posco ChemTech, was picked as the candidate for POSCO's new chairman on June 23, 2018. (Yonhap)

Choi, if approved, will replace outgoing CEO Kwon Oh-joon, who offered to step down in April.

Posco ChemTech is a key POSCO affiliate specializing in coal chemistry and carbon materials.

Kwon's abrupt announcement came two years before his second three-year term is set to expire.

Last year, Kwon was excluded from a list of business executives who accompanied President Moon Jae-in on a trip to the United States, sparking speculation that he could follow in the footsteps of his predecessors who failed to serve out their terms.

He was also not part of the business delegation that followed Moon on trips to Indonesia and China in 2017.

POSCO has dismissed as groundless the allegations that political pressure or an internal probe by the state prosecutor's office was behind Kwon's decision to quit.

POSCO was a state-run company before being fully privatized in 2000.

This file photo shows POSCO's logo. (Yonhap)
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