Kim Yeo-jeong “Over the subject” One month later…

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha resigned after three years and seven months. Former Blue House National Security Office chief Eui-yong Eui-yong was appointed as the successor. The photo shows President Moon Jae-in and Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa, greeting at the ceremony of establishing the credentials of the Ambassador to Korea held at the Blue House last October. [청와대사진기자단]

On the 20th, Minister Kang Kyung-hwa, who had been in the position as the first foreign minister of the Moon Jae-in administration for three years and seven months, was on the list of replacements. On this day, President Moon appointed Eui-yong Eui-yong, former head of the Blue House National Security Office, to replace Minister Kang. Politicians and diplomats have come out with a criticism of’a surprise reshuffle’ over this greeting. Minister Kang has no grounds for replacement or hardship, and has not been mentioned for restructuring.

A member of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Transportation Affairs Committee said, “Until recently, there was a lot of expectation that Minister Kang would be with him until the end of President Moon’s term of office.” I didn’t know.”

Diplomats also talk about whether the change of Minister Kang is related to the talks of North Korean Labor Party Vice Chairman Kim Yeo-jeong. In a speech released through the Chosun Central News Agency on the 9th of last month, Vice Minister Kim publicly pointed out Minister Kang and said, “We made a presumptuous review on our (Corona 19) emergency quarantine measures and heard the words spoken in detail through the report.” It was criticized.

North Korean Labor Party Central Committee Vice President Kim Yeo-jeong (left) and Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa. Yonhap News·IISS YouTube capture

At the time, Vice Minister Kim’s remark was that Minister Kang attended an international conference in Bahrain at the invitation of the International Strategic Research Institute (IISS) on the 5th of last month, and said, “North Korea is not responding to our proposal to support Corona 19 response. I think this challenge has made North Korea even more like North Korea.” Minister Kang said that while North Korea claimed that there were no corona 19 confirmed cases, it was a “a little strange situation” about implementing emergency quarantine measures related to Corona 19.

Deputy Director Kim said to Minister Kang, “If you see that you are pouring out criticism without counting back and forth, you seem to be suffering from a deeper cold air in the frozen North-South relations. We’ll remember it forever and maybe it should be calculated correctly.” In North Korea, the word’calculate’ means’to pay a price for wrongdoing’. Unfortunately, after the talk of Vice Minister Kim came out, Minister Kang was on the list of replacements.

In June of last year, the then Minister of Unification Kim Yeon-cheol resigned after announcing a discourse about Kim’s criticism of a leaflet against North Korea. On June 4, last year, Vice Minister Kim criticized the spreading of warfare against North Korea, saying, “If protested acts are neglected in the name of individual freedom and freedom of expression, the South Korean authorities will soon have to look to the worst phase.” . After raising the level of criticism from South Korea through talks by the Unification Front Ministry’s spokesperson, on the 9th of the same month, all inter-Korean communication channels were blocked, including the hotline, a symbol of trust between the leaders of the two Koreas.

Reporter Jeong Jin-woo [email protected]