South Korea appoints Ambassadors to Netherlands, six other countries

Seoul, April 28 (IANS) South Korea appointed new Ambassadors to seven countries, including the Netherlands and Denmark, and consul generals to Kazakhstan and Germany on Monday in a delayed regular reshuffle amid the political crisis following former President Yoon Suk Yeol's ouster.

Hong Seok-in, Deputy Foreign Minister for Public Diplomacy, will serve as Ambassador to the Netherlands, with Rhee Dong-yeol, Ambassador for International Cyber Affairs and Special Adviser to the Foreign Minister, to head the embassy in Denmark, the ministry said in a press release.

Kang Kym-gu, who previously served as Charge d'Affaires at the South Korean Embassy in Myanmar, will take up the top envoy post to Azerbaijan.

Lee Seung-buhm, Director-General for the International Policy Bureau at the defence ministry, will serve as Ambassador to Croatia.

Tae Jun-youl, a foreign policy adviser to the Prime Minister, will be serving as the new top envoy to Poland, and Geon Gyu-suk, head of the South Korean representative office to Palestine, will serve as Ambassador to Lebanon.

Lee Jun-il, Director-General for Korean Peninsula policy, will head the embassy in Iraq, Yonhap news agency reported.

Others include Ha Tae-wuk, Deputy Consul-General in the Chinese city of Shenyang, who will serve as Consul-General to Almaty, and Kim Eun-jeong, Director-General for African and Middle Eastern Affairs, who will serve as Consul-General in Frankfurt.

Monday's announcement did not include the names for the top envoy posts in China and Indonesia, which have remained vacant since South Korea was thrown into a political crisis in the wake of Yoon's brief martial law declaration in December.

Yoon appointed his former chief of staff, Kim Dae-ki, as Ambassador to Beijing, but the appointment has been held up since the martial law debacle.

Former Industry Minister Bang Moon-kyu has been widely speculated to be the next Ambassador to Indonesia, but he was also not included in the list.

The announcement of the ambassadors came later than usual, as regular appointments of heads of foreign missions are typically made public twice a year -- around the beginning and end of each year.

Monday's announcement is expected to be the last appointments for heads of diplomatic missions before the country elects a new president on June 3. Yoon was removed from office in a Constitutional Court verdict earlier this month.

--IANS

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