Ex-presidential security adviser named Korea Foundation chief

Former presidential security adviser Kim Byung-kook, 51, was named Wednesday to head the Korea Foundation, a state-run organization tasked with promoting South Korea's international image through exchanges with foreign countries.

Kim, an international politics expert, served as senior foreign affairs and security secretary for President Lee Myung-bak in 2008 before returning as a professor to Seoul's Korea University.

The Korean Foundation post has been vacant since February after former chief Yim Sung-joon, a career diplomat who also served as presidential security adviser in 2002, left the job as his term expired.

The foreign ministry said Kim would bring to the job his knowledge of international issues and his personal connections in foreign countries.

Kim will be formally appointed to a three-year term after procedural issues are addressed.