South Korean President Moon Jae-in has appointed four-term lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Party (DP) Lee In-young as the new unification minister, the Yonhap news agency reported on Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd July, 2020) South Korean President Moon Jae-in has appointed four-term lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Party (DP) Lee In-young as the new unification minister, the Yonhap news agency reported on Friday.
According to the news agency, the nomination of Lee In-young, is considered as part of Moon's intention to reach a breakthrough in the long-stalled inter-Korean dialogue amid Pyongyang's anger over the campaign by North Korean defectors who send propaganda leaflets across the border.
Lee became a member of the Millennium Democratic Party, the predecessor of the DP, in 1999, and was elected to the country's parliament in 2004, 2012, 2016 and 2020. The lawmaker has since served as a member of the National Assembly's foreign affairs and unification committee and as chairman of the special committee for inter-Korean economic cooperation in 2018. Lee also served as floor leader of the DP from 2019 to 2020.
Tensions on the peninsula escalated after North Korea cut off communications with its southern neighbor and earlier in June blew up the joint liaison office in the border town of Kaesong. According to Pyongyang, the move was in line with "the mindset of the enraged people" over propaganda leaflets that drifted in from the South. Seoul reportedly urged the Keunsaem activists, a group of North Korean defectors, to suspend leafleting, as it could further anger Pyongyang and undermine the safety of people living near the border.
