[QODLink]
Asia-Pacific
N Korean refugee to head Seoul think-tank
Cho Myung-chul, a former teacher in Pyongyang, to take over a government research institute.
Last Modified: 08 Jun 2011 07:32
Cho, at right, will hold the highest South Korean government job ever taken by a North Korean refugee

South Korea has decided to appoint a North Korean defector to head a government research institute.

Cho Myung-chul, an economist, was handed a certificate of appointment on Wednesday morning at the South Korean Unification Ministry in Seoul, South Korea's capital.

Cho, who currently works at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, is set to take the post of chief of the ministry-affiliated Education Centre for Unification later this week.

Media reports say Cho had once taught at Kim Il-Sung University in Pyongyang, North Korea's capital, and defected in 1994.

It would be the highest South Korean government job that a North Korean refugee has ever taken.

More than 21,000 North Koreans have fled to South Korea to avoid political oppression and hunger since the Korean War ended in a cease-fire rather than a peace treaty in 1953.
Source:
Agencies
Topics in this article
People
Country
City
Organisation
Featured on Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera's exclusive publishing of a key Guantanamo prison military document lays bare the brutality of force-feeding.
Former military official says poverty and anger in indigenous communities mean conditions for an "insurgency" are ripe.
A four-part series that gives a rare insight into the country on the move, with history in tow.
Series on the Palestinian 'catastrophe' of 1948 that led to dispossession and conflict that still endures.
Featured
China Rising
A four-part series that gives a rare insight into the country on the move, with history in tow.
Al-Nakba
Series on the Palestinian 'catastrophe' of 1948 that led to dispossession and conflict that still endures.
Syria: The War Within
Two years since the start of the uprising, rebels and Assad's forces remain locked in conflict.
China angles for Arctic power
China aims to expand its influence in the resource rich area.
Crisis in Bangladesh
Extensive coverage of war crimes tribunals and controversial calls for blasphemy laws.
join our mailing list