President Moon shuffles top officials as he seeks to rebuild relationship with North Korea
On Friday, July 3rd, the South Korean leader nominated new candidates to adopt the roles of chiefs of national security, intelligence and unification in attempts to restore the communication with the nation of the North.
President Moon Jae-in appointed government roles to several officials who have traditionally work alongside North Korea or have advocated in favor or reestablishing a bond.
For the role of Director of the National Intelligence service (NIS), Moon selected Park Jie-won, a former representative of the nation to Pyongyang. The Former NIS director, Suh Hoon, will be allocated to the position of national security advisor and the current security advisors, Chung Eui-yong, will be given the role of special advisors on security and foreign policy, alongside Im Jong-seok.
Lee In-young, a lawmaker, would be the unification minister designated to closely follow the inter-Korean ties, if his role is approved by the parliament. The former minister resigned due to the deterioration of the ties with the North.
“Reviving inter-Korean dialogue is a top priority, and I’d look at the issue of restarting humanitarian exchanges and cooperation which can be done immediately,” Lee said at a news conference.
Moon carried out these shifts to try to stimulate progress in redeveloping the ties of communication with North Korea. All of the candidates have mentioned plans to try to create dialogue with Pyongyang.
In addition, Moon also seeks to restart diplomatic exchanges and incorporate the nation into the international community. The South Korean president has expressed that he wishes to serve as a mediator between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US president Trump.
The relationship between the superpower of the West and the nation of the east has worsen since their last encounter in the second summit last year. Due to this, Moon seeks to reestablish their cooperation and called for the two to meet before the US elections in November.
