Seoul names new point man on North Korea
Appointment comes after failed summit between Trump and Kim
SEOUL: South Korean President Moon Jae-in has replaced his unification minister who played a major role in detente with North Korea over the past year, his office said, naming a long-time confidant to lead a drive for “a new Korean peninsula”.
Kim Yeon-chul, a pro-engagement scholar who heads the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification, will replace Cho Myounggyon pending a confirmation hearing.
The Ministry of Unification handles relations with North Korea.
“He’s the right man who can actively embody the president’s vision for a new Korean peninsula, a new peace and cooperation community, by carrying out the unification ministry’s main policy tasks without a hitch and implementing inter-Korean agreements in a speedy manner,” Moon’s spokesman told a news briefing yesterday.
The change was part of Moon’s largest cabinet reshuffle since taking office in 2017, with new ministers for the interior, land and transport, culture and sport, science and technology, and small and medium enterprises.
The shake-up allows the outgoing ministers to run in parliamentary elections next year and turns a page for an administration facing a sluggish economy and sagging popularity.
The removal of Cho, who has yet to say if he would enter politics, comes a week after a second summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in Vietnam, failed to narrow their differences on dismantling the North’s nuclear programme and US willingness to ease sanctions.
The failed summit was a blow for Moon, who had hoped US sanctions relief would boost South-North projects including a factory park, tourism zone and railway network.
Ahead of the summit in Vietnam’s capital of Hanoi, a rift opened within Moon’s administration over how to advance Korean ties without undercutting international sanctions and the alliance with the United States.
Some top aides, including national security adviser Chung Eui-yong, had pushed for economic projects with North Korea to go ahead.
Cho and other aides favoured sticking to Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign to force the North’s denuclearisation.
Cho’s advocacy of strict sanctions enforcement surprised and drew complaints from many officials.
Following the breakdown of the summit, Moon reorganised his national security council, tasking Choi Jong-kun, one of Moon’s foreign policy architects who steered an inter-Korean military accord last year, with the nuclear issues.