SEOUL, May 4 (Yonhap) — Yun Duk-min, a well-known expert on Japan, is likely to be incoming President Yoon Suk-yeol’s first ambassador to Tokyo, sources said Wednesday.
Yun, a former head of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, is being considered for the job after having worked closely with Yoon’s presidential campaign as a foreign policy adviser, the sources said.
Yun traveled to Japan last week as a member of Yoon’s policy consultation delegation and has decades of experience as a professor and expert on South Korea-Japan relations, North Korea and other national security issues.
If nominated, Yun will take on the responsibility of carrying out Yoon’s commitment to improving badly frayed relations with Japan and increasing trilateral cooperation with the United States and Japan.
Recent years have seen Seoul-Tokyo ties plunge to their worst level in decades amid disputes over wartime sex slaves, forced labor and other issues stemming from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
Other names being mentioned for ambassadorships include Rep. Cho Tae-yong for ambassador to the United States and Chung Jae-ho, a professor of political science and international relations at Seoul National University, for ambassador to China.
Source: Yonhap News Agency