President Moon Jae-in on Monday named a new senior secretary for civil affairs after the previous secretary resigned over ethical issues related to his son.

Kim Young-sik, a former secretary for legal affairs under the Moon administration, was appointed to succeed Kim Jin-kook, who stepped down last month after his son was found to have leveraged the father's position on job applications.

"(Kim) has a high level of understanding of the Moon Jae-in government's administrative philosophy and has an excellent work and communication ability," senior presidential secretary for public communication Park Soo-hyun said at a press briefing.

"We expect him to smoothly fulfill his duties as the senior civil affairs secretary, including reforms, the stable completion of administrative tasks and the establishment of public officials' discipline," he said.

Moon gave his verbal approval before departing for his trip to the Middle East on Saturday and plans to sign off on the appointment later in the day.

The new senior secretary is set to begin his duties Tuesday. He is a former judge and current partner at a local law firm. (Yonhap)