South Korea has announced that Tae Yong-Ho, who defected to the country from North Korea in 2016, will chair a presidential advisory council on Korean reunification.
Tae had been Pyongyang’s deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom, before he defected.
North Korea has called him “human scum” and said he had embezzled state funds.
In 2020 Tae became the first North Korean to win a seat in the South Korean parliament. However, in elections this year he was not re-elected.
In a statement, the South Korean presidential office said: “He is the right person to help establish a peaceful unification policy based on liberal democracy and garner support from home and abroad.”
Tensions between the two Koreas have risen in recent months, and satellite images seem to indicate that the North is building up its military presence on its border with the South.