Namkoong Whon, new CEO of Kakao / Courtesy of Kakao

Kakao, the operator of Korea's top mobile messenger KakaoTalk, said Thursday it has named Namkoong Whon as its new CEO, after two previous candidates withdrew their nominations.

Kakao said its board of directors accepted the resignation of incumbent co-CEO Yeo Min-soo, who had been named earlier to lead the tech giant for another four years.

Namkoong, who has served as the chief of Kakao's new organization aimed at finding new growth engines, will be officially appointed CEO during a board of directors meeting slated for March.

"I will focus on ESG management with huge responsibility so that Kakao can restore trust and live up to the expectations of the people," Namkoong was quoted by Kakao as saying.

The nomination comes after Ryu Young-joon offered to withdraw his nomination over controversial stock selloffs.

Ryu, who has been leading Kakao's payment arm Kakao Pay, was named chief of the tech giant alongside Yeo on Nov. 25.

However, he came under criticism after he and other senior executives sold around 90 billion won ($75 million) worth of Kakao Pay shares by exercising their stock options on Dec. 10. They collected around 46.9 billion won in profit. (Yonhap)