South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday selected a conservative scholar and outspoken critic of North Korea’s human rights record as the country’s new unification minister to handle relations with Pyongyang as he reshuffles his cabinet.
The nomination of Kim Yung-ho, a professor of political science at Sungshin Women’s University, comes as Yoon seeks to shine a spotlight on North Korea’s human rights abuses and tensions on the Korean Peninsula have risen.
Yoon said in March that the international community should have better knowledge of the situation in the North.
Kim, 63, served as presidential unification secretary and human rights commissioner under the conservative administrations of Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye.
The nomination is likely to increase tensions between the two Koreas. North Korea has long dismissed criticism of its rights as part of a plot to overthrow its ruler.
Kim Yung-ho said in a 2019 column that the path to reunification would open when “the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is overthrown and North Korea is liberated.”
“I will do my best to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue with a principled approach and build a foundation for improving inter-Korean relations,” Professor Kim told reporters after the appointment was announced.
Kim is the right person to push North Korea’s “principled” and consistent policy, said Yoon’s chief of staff, Kim Dae-ki.
The Unification Ministry’s role ranges from cross-border dialogue and exchanges to studying human rights abuses in North Korea and helping defectors resettle in the South.
But the ministry has noticed a change in its position and also in relations between neighbors. The two Koreas remain technically at war under the 1950-53 Korean War Armistice.
Nuclear-armed North Korea has been testing weapons, including its largest intercontinental ballistic missile, since early last year, raising tensions with the South and its main ally, the United States.
Thursday’s cabinet reshuffle also included a replacement for the head of the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Civil Rights Commission, a ministerial post. There have also been a number of deputy ministers, including the appointment of 2008 Olympic gold weightlifter Jang Mi-ran as second deputy minister of culture and sports.
Ministerial appointments are subject to parliamentary hearings, but formal approval is not required.
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