Yoon taps ex-police deputy commissioner for security role

President Yoon Suk Yeol tapped former Deputy Police Commissioner Park Jong-joon as the new head of the Presidential Security Service in charge of the security and protection of the South Korean leader, the presidential office announced Monday.

Effective Monday, the 59-year-old Park replaced Kim Yong-hyun, who was appointed minister of national defense on Friday to succeed Yoon's new national security adviser Shin Won-sik.

Park told reporters Monday that he recognized the safety of a country's head of state is a matter of national security.

Park was deputy commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency during former President Lee Myung-bak's administration. He also served as deputy head of the Presidential Security Service from 2013 to 2015 in Cheong Wa Dae, the former presidential office, during former President Park Geun-hye's term.

Born in a town currently merged into the newly-established de facto administrative capital Sejong City, Park graduated summa cum laude from the Korean National Police University and earned a master's degree in public administration at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York.