President Park Geun-hye named a former ruling lawmaker as her senior secretary for political affairs, an official said Friday.
  
Hyun Ki-hwan, who served as a lawmaker of Park's ruling Saenuri Party, replaced Cho Yoon-sun, who quit in May over lack of progress in reforming the public employee pension system.
  
"Hyun is the right person to smoothly assist the president in political affairs with his political sense, sociability and a widespread human network," presidential spokesman Min Kyung-wook said.
  
Hyun worked for the Federation of Korean Trade Union -- one of South Korea's two largest labor unions with more than 650,000 members -- before serving as lawmaker from 2008 to 2012. (Yonhap)