The Ministry of Finance and Economy (MOFE) said Tuesday that the global financial organization has selected Kenneth Kang, 35, to be the chief of the IMF office in Korea.

Kang is to take over the position from Paul Gruenwald, the current head of the Seoul office, in September.

Kang, currently the senior research for Japan at the IMF, has been at the fund for eight years since 1995 after earning a Ph.D in economics from Harvard University. He has held research posts at the IMF for the regional economies of Africa, Asia/Pacific and the two Koreas.

Hailing from Baltimore, Maryland, Kang says he has been interested in his parent's home country since childhood. A graduate of Yale, Kang earned his doctorate from Harvard with a dissertation on Korea's economic development. (Bang Sung-hun, sungbang@chosun.com )