South Korea is likely to name a new team of nuclear negotiators later Thursday in a sweeping shake-up of senior diplomats under the new government, sources said.
Top nuclear envoy Chun Yung-woo will be replaced by Kim Sook, a veteran diplomat who formerly led the American affairs bureau at the Foreign Ministry, they added.
Hwang Joon-kook, a Foreign Ministry official known for his expertise on multilateral diplomacy, will be tapped as Seoul's number two negotiator at the six-way talks on the North Korean nuclear program, taking the baton from Lim Sung-nam, according to the sources.
The change of the line-up may inject some fresh air into the stalled nuclear talks. President Lee Myung-bak, who took office in late February, said last week that South Korea had not played a proper role in the six-way talks. He did not elaborate.
But the widely-expected replacement of nuclear negotiators is understood to be irrelevant to their performance or the current deadlock in the talks.
Experts say it is not surprising that the conservative government will form a new nuclear negotiation team to replace the existing team, which was appointed by its liberal predecessor.
SEOUL, March 20 (Yonhap)
S. Korea to replace top nuclear envoy |
