Late on the evening of August 30, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, as part of a mini-reshuffle affecting four cabinet positions, finally replaced his long-term hardline unification minister, former academic Hyun In-taek. With Lee's characteristic cronyism, the man nominated to replace Hyun was another of his close advisers - geography professor Yu Woo-ik, once Lee's chief of staff in the Blue House and latterly South Korea's ambassador to China.
Despite the usual pro forma insistence that this does not mean any change of policy - Hyun was retained, notionally, as a special adviser on unification - the Seoul press was unanimous that this
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