The government has appointed a new chief envoy to the six-party denuclearization talks on Wednesday.

The new envoy, Im Seong-nam, concurrently served from 2007 as the second-ranked nuclear envoy at the six-party talks and the head of the North Korean nuclear affairs bureau in the Foreign Ministry until September 2009 when he was sent to China as a diplomat.

Im was said to have been present at the second inter-Korean denuclearization talks in September in Beijing, where he was introduced to North Korea’s chief nuclear envoy Ri Yong-ho.

Meanwhile, the former chief nuclear envoy Wi Sung-lac has been appointed as South Korea's ambassador to Russia and is scheduled to officially start his post in mid-October.

The Russian government agreed to the South Korea's diplomatic agrément to have Wi serve as ambassador in August.