Photo/Illutration Korean Unification flags defaced by strong wind hang on a military fence near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Paju, South Korea, September 28, 2021. (REUTERS)

SEOUL--South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday picked a conservative scholar and an outspoken critic of North Korea’s human rights record as the country’s new unification minister handling relations with Pyongyang in a cabinet reshuffle.

The nomination of Kim Yung-ho, a political science professor at Sungshin Women’s University, comes as Yoon has been seeking to shine a spotlight on human rights abuses in North Korea and as tensions on the Korean peninsula have spiked.

Yoon said in March the international community should have better knowledge about the situation in the North.

Kim, 63, served as a presidential secretary for unification and a human rights envoy under the conservative Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye administrations.

The nomination is likely to add strain to ties between the two Koreas. North Korea has long rejected criticism of its rights conditions as part of a plot to overthrow its rulers.

Kim Yung-ho said in a 2019 column that the path to unification would open when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s “regime is overthrown and North Korea is liberated.”

“I will do my best to resolve North Korea’s nuclear issue with a principled approach and build the foundation to improve inter-Korean relations,” professor Kim told reporters after the appointment was announced.

Kim is the right person to pursue a “principle-based” and consistent North Korea 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 seen its standing change along with relations between the neighbors. The two Koreas remain technically at war under an armistice on the 1950-53 Korean War.

Nuclear-armed North Korea has since early last year been testing weapons, including its biggest intercontinental ballistic missile, ramping up tensions with the South and its main ally, the United States.

Thursday’s cabinet shake-up also included a replacement for the head of the anti-corruption and civil rights commission, a ministerial post. There was also a string of vice-ministerial posts, including the appointment of 2008 Olympic gold medalist weightlifter Jang Mi-ran as the second vice minister of culture and sports.

Ministerial appointees are subject to parliamentary hearings but a formal approval is not required.

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