South Korea Shakes Up Security Team After North Korea Setbacks

(Bloomberg) -- South Korea's President Moon Jae-in shook up his security team and appointed veterans in North Korea relations after Kim Jong Un's regime blew up a joint liaison that once served as a symbol of his rapprochement toward Pyongyang.

Moon named Park Jie-won as the new head of the National Intelligence Service, his office said Friday. Park helped broker the first inter-Korea summit 20 years ago when he was the chief of staff to former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and last year met Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korea's current leader at Panmunjom truce village that straddles the border between the two Koreas.

Before North Korea detonated explosives in the $15 million facility paid for by South Korea and located in the North Korean border city of Kaesong, Kim Yo Jong said it was “high time” to break ties with South Korea, blaming Moon for not living up to promises he made in three summits with Kim Jong Un that led to the setup of the liaison office.

The new appointments, which come as Moon has been looking to revive his plans for peace, include moving spy chief Suh Hoon to the new director of national security. But North Korea has shown its disdain for the people Moon picked.

About a day before blowing up the building, Kim Yo Jong flatly rejected Moon's offer for talks that included Suh as a special envoy, calling the proposal “tactless and sinister.”

Park hasn't fared much better. A top North Korean cadre last year called him a “dirty dog” and “tramp” after he raised concerns about a North Korean missile test.

The act of destruction, which a Moon spokesman denounced as “reckless,” appeared to be part of a calculated gamble to try to force the South Korean president to break with the U.S. and support sanctions relief for North Korea. The result was to literally blow up the most concrete achievement of Moon's decades-long drive to establish a lasting peace with his country's greatest foe.

Kim Jong Un Leaves South Korean Leader's Peace Legacy in Ruins

Park told Bloomberg in an interview last month before the blast that North Korea fears U.S. military supremacy, adding it wouldn't dare to start an all-out war in the Korean Peninsula.

He said reviving inter-Korean relations was a key task and that Kim Yo Jong plays a “pivotal role” in ensuring regime continuity.

“Unlike his predecessors, Kim Jong Un did not have enough time to solidify his political foundation before he got put into office,” Park said. There is an urgent need within North Korean regime to make Kim Yo Jong as the “second-in-command” in case of an emergency since Kim Jong Un's children are “too young for that job,” he said.

Moon also appointed Lee In-young, a ruling party lawmaker, as his new unification minister after his previous point person for North Korea resigned in the wake of the liaison office destruction.

National security adviser Chung Eui-yong was appointed as a special envoy for diplomacy and security.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.