When a North Korean agent hijacked a Korean Air flight carrying his father and forced the pilot to land in North Korea in December 1969, Hwang In-cheol was only two years old.
A North Korean diplomat-turned-defector will be appointed as a special aide to Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho, The Korea Times has learned. According to two government officials familiar with the matter, Ko Young-hwan, who had worked as a North Korean diplomat in Africa for more than 10 years before defecting to South Korea in 1991, will help the minister formulate North Korea policies.
Under a new leader, the Ministry of Unification is poised to get tough on North Korea. The ministry said on Friday that it will launch a new department dedicated to supporting the victims of abduction by North Korea as part of its reform effort to focus more on the North s poor human rights record in handling inter-Korean relations.