South Korea's Yoon tells unification ministry to be less soft on North

FILE PHOTO: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol delivers his speech during a ceremony marking the 68th Memorial Day at the National cemetery in Seoul, South Korea, June 6, 2023. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/Pool/File Photo

SEOUL (Reuters) -Having appointed a new unification minister days earlier, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Sunday that the ministry had focused too much on providing aid for North Korea in the past and needed to change.

The new minister Kim Yung-ho is a conservative scholar and outspoken critic human rights abuses in North Korea, which Yoon has sought to spotlight amid rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula.