Yoon names lawmaker who opposed abolishing unification ministry to lead it
South Korean president-elect Yoon Suk-yeol has nominated a four-term lawmaker who opposed proposals from his party to abolish the unification ministry to serve as its next leader and oversee inter-Korean affairs.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Yoon praised lawmaker Kwon Young-se of the People Power Party (PPP) as a “centrist and pragmatist” with in-depth knowledge of DPRK denuclearization and unification issues. Yoon also announced Park Jin, a four-term lawmaker who led the president-elect’s delegation to the U.S. last week, as his pick to be foreign minister.
“The situation regarding inter-Korean relations is grave indeed. There were various efforts in the past few years, but there was no progress,” Kwon said in answer to an NK News question about his views on the Moon administration’s North Korea policy. “The external situation is very unfavorable — with the DPRK nuclear weapons issue, recently continuing missile provocations and suspended dialogue.”
Kwon, a prosecutor-turned-politician like Yoon, previously served as ambassador to China under President Park Geun-hye and a security expert who headed the National Assembly’s intelligence committee in 2010. He has criticized both progressive and conservative policies toward North Korea, likely an asset as Yoon looks to win support for his unification minister pick in the opposition-controlled legislature.
Kwon is known for being cautious and diplomatic. Asked on Wednesday about his views on the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement, he declined to go into details, saying the administration and ministry should decide on a future direction “as a team” based on both “reasonable principles” and a “pragmatic” approach.
“‘Principle’ and ‘pragmatism’ could be contradictory, but the unification ministry’s task right now is exactly that — solving such difficult contradictions in inter-Korean relations,” Kwon said.
Yoon portrayed Kwon as someone who led internal reforms and mediated conflicts within the conservative PPP, while highlighting his experience as ambassador.
“I think that he will play a big role in resolving the DPRK nuclear weapons issue in the future and manage the situation on the Korean Peninsula stably,” Yoon said Wednesday.
PROFILE OF A “CENTRIST”
A four-term lawmaker, Kwon played a leading role in crafting election strategies for Yoon as well as impeached former President Park Geun-hye back in 2012. Earlier this week, he accompanied Yoon for a visit to see Park at her home in Daegu.
As head of the National Assembly’s intelligence committee when North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong Island in 2010, he famously criticized both former President Roh Moo-hyun’s pro-engagement Sunshine Policy and Lee Myung-bak’s DPRK policy, saying it was a “comprehensive” failure.
While Kwon unsuccessfully attempted to visit North Korea to discuss inter-Korean economic cooperation in 2008, he later came out against sending an envoy to Pyongyang or holding a summit without a clear goal, saying it plays into the DPRK’s strategy. But he has voiced support for providing humanitarian assistance, criticizing former president Lee for not doing more to address food insecurity in North Korea.
Kwon was also one of the few conservative lawmakers to criticize the PPP leader’s proposal to shut down the unification ministry last year, arguing that tasking the foreign ministry with inter-Korean relations would cause problems since the South Korean constitution does not recognize the North as a separate country.
“We ultimately aim at unification, but our unification ministry’s task today is not to achieve it right away but to handle inter-Korean exchange and cooperation, in the process of overcoming the division,” he said in July 2021.
Kwon also opposed a controversial law aimed at restricting anti-DPRK leafleting activities, warning during debates on the law that it risked “limiting people’s freedom and human rights” by interpreting the scope of criminalized activities too widely.
Kwon, 63, graduated from Seoul National University law school, where he was two years Yoon’s senior. The two have a more than 40-year friendship outside politics.
FOREIGN MINISTER PICK
Yoon’s foreign minister pick Park Jin did not attend Wednesday’s press conference after testing positive for COVID-19, but he said in a written statement that “there is only national interest” when it comes to diplomatic priorities, while noting the “grave” situation due to North Korean provocations and U.S.-China competition.
Yoon emphasized his nominee’s expertise in foreign and security policy and diplomatic experience, noting he met then-Senator Joe Biden one-on-one in 2008 as leader of an association of South Korean and American lawmakers.
- READ MORE: Park Jin’s profile
“Going forward, I think that he will immensely contribute to normalizing the ROK’s diplomacy stuck in deadlock and make South Korea become a global pivotal state that fulfills its responsibility and solidarity in the international community,” Yoon said.
Park returned from a weeklong visit to Washington on Sunday after meeting with top U.S. officials at the White House, State Department and Pentagon. In D.C., he stressed the need to strengthen the U.S.-ROK alliance and discussed the deployment of strategic assets to South Korea.
Park is a fluent English speaker and four-term PPP lawmaker, and he also headed Yoon’s election camp team that drafted his foreign and security policies.
Edited by Bryan Betts
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