Unification Ministry does not support North Korea, Yoon says

President Yoon Suk Yeol [YONHAP]

President Yoon Suk Yeol has stressed that the Unification Ministry is not a department that exists to support North Korea.

According to the president’s office on Sunday, President Yoon said the Unification Ministry’s role must be changed to pursue a unification based on basic free democratic order.

“In the past, the Unification Ministry acted as a department that supported North Korea,” Yoon said. “The unification that we should aim for is a unification where all citizens from both North and South could live better lives and a humane life.”

The statement by the president’s office came after the Yoon administration announced its first reshuffling where Kim Yung-ho, a political science and diplomacy professor of Sungshin Women’s University known for his hardline stance against North Korea, was named as the Unification Minister nominee on Thursday.

The opposition Democratic Party has criticized the appointment of Kim and likened him to a conservative YouTuber.

DP called the Unification Minister nominee a person that is consumed by an outdated cold war era view that is hostile against North Korea.

The minister nominee worked as a unification secretary and was Foreign Ministry’s human rights ambassador during the Lee Myung-bak administration.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]