ID :
61045
Mon, 05/18/2009 - 12:42
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/61045
The shortlink copeid
S. Korea to reshuffle ministry on N. Korea this week: sources
SEOUL, May 17 (Yonhap) -- South Korea plans to reshuffle its Unification Ministry
this week amid mounting tensions with North Korea, replacing officials that led
the preparations for the 2007 summit in Pyongyang, sources said Sunday.
The plan comes after the ministry last week closed its department that handled
humanitarian exchanges with the communist neighbor, shifting its role to other
bureaus.
Officials said the shutdown would not hamper their efforts to increase exchanges
with North Korea, which has vowed retaliation against South Korea for their
frayed ties over the past year.
"Three high-level officials have recently offered their resignations," a South
Korean source said, adding the recent restructuring is another reason for a
"wide-ranging reshuffle."
The officials, including Koh Kyoung-bin, head of a resettlement center for North
Korean defectors, played key roles when then South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun
met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in October 2007.
It was the second summit between the Koreas since the end of the 1950-53 Korean
War that ended in a truce.
The meetings, including the 2000 summit, triggered a slew of exchanges, but ties
deteriorated after President Lee Myung-bak took office in Seoul last year with a
pledge to link reconciliation to North Korea's efforts to denuclearize.
North Korea, which tested a nuclear device in 2006, has threatened an armed
conflict along their border, detained a South Korean worker at their joint
industrial complex and vowed to enhance its nuclear arsenal over the U.N.
condemnation of its April 5 rocket launch.
"As soon as Lee signs the proposal, the reshuffle will be conducted," another
source said, suggesting as early as Thursday.
The reshuffle is the first since Hyun In-taek took office as Unification Minister
in February this year. Hyun, a political science professor, is an architect of
the South Korean policy that seeks to compensate North Korea with assistance to
achieve an economic boom for its denuclearization under a six-nation deal.
samkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
this week amid mounting tensions with North Korea, replacing officials that led
the preparations for the 2007 summit in Pyongyang, sources said Sunday.
The plan comes after the ministry last week closed its department that handled
humanitarian exchanges with the communist neighbor, shifting its role to other
bureaus.
Officials said the shutdown would not hamper their efforts to increase exchanges
with North Korea, which has vowed retaliation against South Korea for their
frayed ties over the past year.
"Three high-level officials have recently offered their resignations," a South
Korean source said, adding the recent restructuring is another reason for a
"wide-ranging reshuffle."
The officials, including Koh Kyoung-bin, head of a resettlement center for North
Korean defectors, played key roles when then South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun
met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in October 2007.
It was the second summit between the Koreas since the end of the 1950-53 Korean
War that ended in a truce.
The meetings, including the 2000 summit, triggered a slew of exchanges, but ties
deteriorated after President Lee Myung-bak took office in Seoul last year with a
pledge to link reconciliation to North Korea's efforts to denuclearize.
North Korea, which tested a nuclear device in 2006, has threatened an armed
conflict along their border, detained a South Korean worker at their joint
industrial complex and vowed to enhance its nuclear arsenal over the U.N.
condemnation of its April 5 rocket launch.
"As soon as Lee signs the proposal, the reshuffle will be conducted," another
source said, suggesting as early as Thursday.
The reshuffle is the first since Hyun In-taek took office as Unification Minister
in February this year. Hyun, a political science professor, is an architect of
the South Korean policy that seeks to compensate North Korea with assistance to
achieve an economic boom for its denuclearization under a six-nation deal.
samkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
