Ruling party taps seasoned North Korea hands for new task force

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) will launch an internal committee focused on inter-Korean peace to support the government's engagement efforts with North Korea, party chairman Rep. Jung Chung-rae said Friday. The liberal party leader said the move is intended to support the Lee Jae Myung administration's push for rapprochement with Pyongyang. "President Lee needs a variety of cards to normalize the South Korea-U.S. alliance and inter-Korean relations. The DPK will not hesitate to play a leverage role," Jung said at his first press conference since taking office in August. "To that end, we will establish a new strategy committee for peace on the Korean Peninsula within the party by inviting distinguished experts." The committee, to be launched in the near future, will be led by former Unification Ministers Chung Se-hyun and Lee Jae-jung, as well as former special adviser for security affairs Moon Chung-in. The three figures named to lead the committee are widely seen as representing the "autonomy-minded" camp within South Korea's foreign and security policy circles, in contrastWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times