Cho Tae-yong
South Korea is set to announce a new team of negotiators on North Korea’s nuclear programs in a shake-up of senior diplomats under the new government, diplomatic sources here said Thursday.
Cho Tae-yong, Seoul’s ambassador to Australia, will replace top nuclear envoy Lim Sung-nam who has filled the position since 2011. Lim will be transferred to Britain to lead the South Korean embassy there, according to the sources.
“Such a reshuffle for the top nuclear envoy position will take place soon,” said an official well-versed on the issue, adding Kim Bong-hyun, South Korea’s deputy foreign minister for multilateral and global affairs, was named Cho’s successor.
The 57-year-old Cho served diverse positions at the foreign ministry as a career diplomat, including deputy chief of the South Korean delegation to the six-party talks on denuclearizing North Korea from 2004-2006 and the ministry’s chief of protocol.
Cho is a son-in-law of former foreign minister Lee Beom-seok who was killed in 1983 in the so-called Rangoon bombing, an assassination attempt by North Korea against then President Chun Doo-hwan.
The two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia held several rounds of multilateral talks aimed at ending Pyongyang’s nuclear programs, but the talks have been suspended since 2008. (Yonhap News)