[USFK Forums] S. Korean Leader Names Point Man on North [AP]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Tuesday, January 3, 2006

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S. Korean Leader Names Point Man on North

By JAE-SOON CHANG, Associated Press Writer

Mon Jan 2,11:26 AM ET

South Korea's president appointed a top security aide Monday as the country's point man on North Korea in a Cabinet shuffle ahead of nationwide local elections later this year.

Lee Jong-seok, 48, a top official at the National Security Council that oversees the nation's foreign and security policies, succeeds Chung Dong-young as unification minister, the office of President Roh Moo-hyun said.

"Lee is an expert on North Korea," Kim Wan-key, senior presidential secretary for personnel affairs, said in comments published on the presidential office's Web site. He "has played an important role in embodying the government's philosophy in foreign and security affairs."

Chung, a popular TV anchor-turned-politician, quit last week to campaign for the ruling party ahead of the May elections. He is considered a likely candidate for the 2007 presidential election to succeed Roh. His rival, former Health Minister Kim Geun-tae, also resigned last week to campaign for the party.

The Cabinet shake up, which also affected three other posts, was apparently aimed at reshaping the image of Roh's government and his ruling Uri Party ahead of the mayoral and gubernatorial elections in May.

The ruling party's popularity has fallen amid public discontent over stagnant job growth, rising housing prices and unsatisfactory reforms. In two rounds of by-elections last year, the party lost 27-0 to opposition parties.

Also replaced in the Cabinet shuffle were ministers for science, industry and labor.

As unification minister, Lee will represent the government in Cabinet-level talks with North Korea, the highest bilateral dialogue between the divided states. The meetings convene several times a year to discuss measures to boost exchanges and ease tension across the world's most heavily fortified border.

Lee, a respected expert on the North, is considered an architect of Roh's policy on the communist neighbor. He is reform-minded and supports engagement with North Korea, but critics accuse him of being pro-Pyongyang.
Relations have warmed significantly since the first summit of the two countries' leaders in 2000. Lee accompanied then-President Kim Dae-jung on the historic trip to Pyongyang to meet leader Kim Jong Il.

Tension persists, however, because of the North's pursuit of nuclear weapons.

In September, Pyongyang agreed in principle to give up its nuclear ambitions in exchange for aid and security assurances. But follow-up negotiations have stalled as the North put forward new conditions for disarming such as its demand for nuclear reactors for power generation which Washington says are
unacceptable.

The nuclear talks, which involve the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia recessed in November. Participants agreed to meet again but didn't set a date.

The two Koreas technically remain in a state of conflict because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.