President Moon Jae In on Friday tapped a semiconductor expert as his next science and technology minister as South Korea grapples with Japan's tightening of chip-making material shipments to the country.

Choi Ki Young, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Seoul National University, is a global authority in semiconductors and has helped South Korea become the world leader in memory chips, presidential spokeswoman Ko Min Jung said.

(Japanese and South Korean protesters participate in a demo to denounce Japan's new trade restrictions on South Korea in Tokyo, Aug. 4 2019, Japan.)[NurPhoto/Getty/Kyodo]

The latest reshuffle within the Moon administration also includes the appointment of diplomat-turned-lawmaker Lee Soo Hyuck as new ambassador to the United States.

Lee, a first-term National Assembly member from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, was South Korea's top negotiator at six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program involving the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

Tapped as new gender equality and family minister is Lee Jung Ok, a sociology professor at Daegu Catholic University. The minister's portfolio includes the issue of "comfort women" who were forced to work in Japanese wartime military brothels.

The issue, which stems from Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945, has been a source of diplomatic tension between South Korea and Japan.