Lee Jin-man/AP
South Korea has appointed a former North Korean diplomat and defector as a senior government official.
President Yoon Suk Yeol made Tae Yongho the secretary-general of the Peaceful Unification Advisory Council, which develops and implements proposals for inter-Korean unification.
Tae made a high-profile defection to South Korea in 2016, and was previously an ambassador at the North Korean Embassy in London.
The appointment makes him the first North Korean defector to be given a vice-ministerial job in South Korea, according to AP.
Ramon Pacheco Pardo, KF-VUB Korea Chair at the Brussels School of Governance, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, told Business Insider that the appointment is significant in itself.
"But this is even more significant given Tae's background as a high-level defector who served in the National Assembly until the recent election," he said.
Tae has "a very public profile that should boost the visibility of the Council," he added.
In 2017, Tae told CNN that he fled with his wife and sons for the future and freedom of his family.
After his defection, North Korean authorities called Tae "human scum" and accused him of crimes.
Sarah A. Son, a senior lecturer in Korean Studies at the University of Sheffield, told BI that the appointment would likely lead to the North Korean government of Kim Jong Un continuing to discredit Tae.
"He's definitely considered a traitor of the current North Korean regime and I think that's how they'll paint it," she said.
In 2020, Tae was elected to South Korea's National Assembly, joining a handful of other defectors who have become lawmakers there.
In his new role, Tae will be working on efforts to build peaceful relations between North and South Korea, with the ultimate goal of reunification.
But "North Korea doesn't consider the Council to be particularly relevant," Pardo, the KF-VUB Korea Chair, told BI.
Hazel Smith, a professor of Korean Studies at SOAS University of London who has known Tae for years, thinks North Korea will find his appointment "very annoying."
"It's the continuation of a trajectory where he has been politically active and had a political position in South Korea," she said.
Smith told BI that she suspects Tae will excel in the role.
"It's certainly not a nominal position given to him by the South Korean government," she said.
Smith added: "He has been and will continue to be actively involved in campaigns that expose the North Korean government and the problems of the North Korean population."
