South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol established a new committee on Thursday charged with guaranteeing “overwhelming” military power for countering North Korean missile and nuclear threats, stating that Seoul must deter the DPRK’s “provocative mentality in advance.”

But overshadowing the announcement was Yoon’s selection of controversial former defense minister Kim Kwan-jin — a North Korea hardliner whose hawkish pronouncements once led Pyongyang to demand his execution — to serve as deputy head of the new Defense Innovation Committee.

Kim is one of eight experts appointed to the all-male committee, which Yoon said will help South Korea equip “overwhelming response capabilities” to