South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has turned to a career Army officer who rose under governments of both the left and right to lead his next phase of defense reform, nominating retired General Kang Shin-chul as defense minister on Sunday.

The choice puts one of South Korea’s most politically durable senior officers in an unusual position.

Kang, a former deputy commander of the U.S.-ROK Combined Forces Command (CFC), is an alliance insider being asked to advance Seoul’s push for greater defense autonomy and a Korea Military Academy (KMA) graduate who could oversee a controversial restructuring of the military academy