N Korean refugee to head Seoul think-tank
Cho Myung-chul, a former teacher in Pyongyang, to take over a government research institute.
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.
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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.