25 May, Seoul: South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday appointed two high-level security advisors who will be tasked with assisting the president to draw up security and foreign policies.
Presidential spokesman Park Su-hyun told a press conference that Moon named Lee Sang-chul, a professor at Sungshin University in Seoul, as the first vice chief of the National Security Office of the presidential Blue House.
Kim Ki-jung, a political science professor at Yonsei University in Seoul, was appointed as the second vice chief of the National Security Office. The newly appointed first vice chief was an expert on national defense who studied issues on the denuclearized Korean Peninsula, a peace regime and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)’s nuclear program, the spokesman said.
Lee will double as the secretary general of the National Security Council (NSC). He will help President Moon draw up policies on security strategy, national defense reform and arms control.
Kim was an academic who studied the Korean Peninsula’s peace issue for long, the spokesman said. During the presidential campaign, he served as an assistant to Moon on security and foreign affairs issues. Kim will be tasked with establishing policies on foreign affairs, unification, intelligence convergence and cyber security.
On Sunday, President Moon named Chung Eui-yong, a career diplomat and former ambassador to Geneva, as the head of the National Security Office. Spokesman Park told reporters that diplomatic and defense experts were appointed to lead the National Security Office as the DPRK’s nuclear issue is a diplomatic matter requiring an international cooperation. Xinhua
