Rep. Tae Yong-ho of the People Power Party announces his bid to run in the Guro district in Seoul during a press briefing at the National Assembly on Jan. 29, 2024. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jul. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — A prominent North Korean defector is likely to be named as the new head of the presidential advisory council on unification, people familiar with the issue said Wednesday.
Tae Yong-ho, a former North Korean deputy ambassador to Britain, has completed a candidate review process for the secretary general for the Peaceful Unification Advisory Council and the nomination awaits President Yoon Suk Yeol’s confirmation, they said.
If confirmed, Tae will be the first North Korean defector to serve in the deputy ministerial post since the council was established in 1980.
Tae fled to South Korea in 2016 in a high-profile defection by a ranking North Korean diplomat. He was elected in the affluent district of Gangnam in Seoul in 2020 as a lawmaker of the ruling People Power Party, but failed to secure a second term in the April parliamentary elections.
(Yonhap)
