South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol has shown a clear pattern of appointing technocrats to key posts in his administration, and that preference has carried over to foreign policy picks that reflect his goal of more closely aligning with the U.S.

The foreign policy team of Yoon’s predecessor Moon Jae-in featured a number of people who did not have a diplomatic background. Many of these officials supported either the Sunshine Policy that advocates engaging North Korea or the so-called balancer theory that calls for retaining some distance from both China and the U.S. Of special importance was Yonsei University professor Moon Chung-in and academics connected to him, collectively known as the Yonsei faction.