SKorea Appoints NKorea Defector as Vice Minister
South Korea's Pres. Yoon Suk Yeol has appointed former North Korean diplomat Tae Yong-ho as the secretary-general of his Peaceful Unification Advisory Council....
Facts
- South Korea's Pres. Yoon Suk Yeol has appointed former North Korean diplomat Tae Yong-ho as the secretary-general of his Peaceful Unification Advisory Council.1
- Tae will replace former Secretary General Seok Dong-hyeon, who resigned in January to run in general elections, in overseeing the council's affairs under the leadership of the president.2
- This is the first time ever that a North Korean defector has been nominated to a vice-ministerial-level position in South Korea.3
- His appointment comes just days after Seoul marked its inaugural Defector's Day, and as the Yoon administration has shown growing support for defectors and human rights issues in the North.4
- At the time of his defection in 2016, Tae was Pyongyang's deputy ambassador to the UK. He became the first North Korean expatriate to enter the South's National Assembly through direct voting in 2020 but failed to secure a second term in April.5
- Seoul's Unification Ministry estimates that some 34K defectors live in the South, with the country's spy agency confirming another high-profile defection of a former diplomat last week.6
Sources: 1Associated Press, 2Koreajoongangdaily, 3Korea Herald, 4NK News, 5Yonhap News Agency and 6BBC News.
Narratives
- Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Foreign Policy. If there's someone who can help reunite the Korean Peninsula, it's Tae Yong-ho — and that's why his nomination as secretary-general is so important. As a North Korean himself, he understands and speaks about unification in concrete and compassionate terms and his progress in public life offers new alternatives for Northern elites.
- Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by KCNA Watch. By appointing a North Korean diplomat-turned-defector to its presidential consultative body on unification, Seoul further shows that it's just not interested in reconciliation and reunification. As long as the South insists on colluding with foreign forces and traitors to try to topple the North's government, unification will continue to be impossible.
