Suh Young-Hoon named as KNRC president

It has been widely speculated that Rep. Suh Young-Hoon, former chairman of the Millennium Democratic Party, would be named president of the Korean National Red Cross to replace Chang Choong-Sik, who resigned Dec. 23 over his critical comment on North Korea.

A highly placed source in the ruling party said Monday that Suh, who had occupied the No. 2 post of the party hierarchy, is likely to resign as National Assemblymen upon appointment to the Red Cross leadership and that his parliamentary seat would be taken over by party advisor Choe Myoung-Hon, who once served as the minister of labor.

The succession by Choe, who ranks 21st on the nationwide ticket of the Democratic Party National Assemblymen, is based on the proportional representation scheme of Korean legislative elections.

Observers said Suh is the best man to fill the Red Cross presidency and believed to be able to resolve the internal discord in the Red Cross organization because he had long worked with the Red Cross until he quit as its secretary general. He is also credited with favorable qualifications for normalizing dialogue channels with Pyongyang, as he originally hails from the North.

The central board of the Red Cross will be called Thursday morning to approve the new president, Red Cross officials here said, adding that Jang Jeong-Ja, one of the vice presidents of the Red Cross, would act as president in the meantime.