Lee taps ex-ambassador to Japan as vice chair of unification council

Published: 16 Apr. 2026, 16:44

Kang Chang-il, a senior vice chair of the Peaceful Unification Advisory Council [YONHAP]

 

President Lee Jae Myung has appointed Kang Chang-il, a former Korean ambassador to Japan, as senior vice chair of the Peaceful Unification Advisory Council (KUAC), a senior aide said Thursday.

 

Kang, a four-term lawmaker who served as ambassador to Japan from 2021 to 2022, was tapped as the top working-level official of the council chaired by President Lee.

 

“With his diplomatic experience gained as head of the Korea-Japan Parliamentarians’ Union and as ambassador to Japan, Kang is the right figure to incorporate such expertise into the unification discourse and promote the value of integration,” Lee Kyu-yeon, presidential secretary for political affairs, told reporters.

 

The KUAC is a presidential advisory body mandated by the Constitution to promote peaceful unification through policy consultation, consensus building and international outreach.

Yonhap