Prominent N. Korean defector named head of unification council

A prominent North Korean defector was named as the new head of the presidential advisory council on unification, the presidential office said Thursday. President Yoon Suk Yeol has tapped Tae Yong-ho, a former North Korean deputy ambassador to Britain, as the secretary general for the Peaceful Unification Advisory Council, chief of staff Chung Jin-suk said during a press briefing. Tae is 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. Source: Yonhap News Agency