South Korea’s Yoon Suk-yeol tells unification ministry to be less soft on North

Yoon urges the ministry to stand up for liberal democratic values, saying that unification should improve people’s lives in the two Koreas

The new unification minister Kim Yung-ho is a conservative scholar and outspoken critic of human rights abuses in North Korea

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South Korean soldiers watch the North Korean side from the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea in March 2023. Photo: AP

Published: 3:31pm, 2 Jul 2023

Having appointed a new unification minister days earlier, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said on Sunday that the ministry had focused too much on providing aid for North Korea in the past and needed to change, Yonhap news agency reported.

The new minister Kim Yung-ho is a conservative scholar and outspoken critic of human rights abuses in North Korea, which Yoon has sought to spotlight amid rising tensions on the Korean peninsula.

“The Unification Ministry has been acting like the ministry of North Korea aid and it is wrong,” Yoon was quoted as saying telling staff in a statement issued by his press secretary. “It’s time for the unification ministry to change.”

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has called for change in the unification ministry. Photo: dpa

According to the report, Yoon urged the ministry to stand up for liberal democratic values, and said unification should bring a “better and more human life” to people in the South and North.

“From now on, the unification ministry must carry out its proper responsibilities, in accordance with the constitutional principles that unification must be based on liberal democratic order,” Yoon was also quoted as saying.

“The unification that we pursue must be one in which all the people from the South and the North enjoy better lives and are treated better as human beings.”

A high-ranking official from Yoon’s office explained: “The unification ministry will mostly analyse and respond to the latest trends in North Korea and also handle North Korean human rights issues.”