Yoon appoints former Park aide as secretary: sources

Jeong Ho-seong, a former aide to ousted President Park Geun-hye, has been appointed as a new secretary in President Yoon Suk Yeol's administration, sources said Thursday. "Jeong is expected to begin his duties as a secretary in the office of the senior secretary to the president for civil and social agenda in the near future," an official from the presidential office told Yonhap News Agency over the phone. Sources said Jeong will serve as the secretary to the president for civil affairs. Jeong was known as one of the "doorknob trio" during the Park administration, a figure of speech implying they were holding the knob of the door leading to Park, and that everything had to pass through them to reach her. Yoon led the investigation surrounding the Park administration when he served as the head of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office. After serving a prison term for leaking presidential documents to a friend of Park's accused of meddling in state affairs, Jeong was pardoned by Yoon in 2022.