Yoon nominates four-term lawmaker Park Jin as new foreign minister

Rep. Park Jin has been nominated as Korea's new foreign minister. Yonhap

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol nominated Rep. Park Jin as foreign minister and Rep. Kwon Young-se as unification minister Wednesday, while tapping Han Dong-hoon, a senior prosecutor and key confidant, to be justice minister.

Yoon announced the nominations at a press conference where he also named six other Cabinet members and his first chief of staff.

Park is a four-term lawmaker of Yoon's People Power Party (PPP) who worked briefly for the foreign ministry after passing the foreign service exam in the 1970s, and is considered an expert on relations with the U.S.

Kwon is also a four-term PPP lawmaker who served as ambassador to China during the Park Geun-hye administration and is known as one of Yoon's closest associates.

Kim In-chul, former president of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, was named education minister and deputy prime minister for social affairs, while Han, widely known as one of Yoon's closest confidants, was tapped for justice minister.

Meanwhile, Lee Sang-min, former vice chief of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, was nominated for minister of interior and safety, and Han Wha-jin, an honorary researcher of the Korea Environment Institute, was named environment minister.

Yoon also picked Cho Seung-hwan, former head of the Korea Institute of Marine Science and Technology Promotion, for minister of oceans and fisheries, and Rep. Lee Young for minister of SMEs and startups.

For his chief of staff, Yoon said he has chosen former presidential chief of staff for policy Kim Dae-ki. (Yonhap)