SEOUL, Sept. 9 (Yonhap) -- An American teenage boy who traveled to North Korea last year with his parents on a peace mission will assume a new role for South Korea as a "PR ambassador" tasked with promoting the image of the South's easternmost islets of Dokdo, his father said Friday.

Jonathan Lee, 14, who lives in Mississippi, will be appointed to the post on Wednesday by the South Gyeongsang provincial government, which has jurisdiction over the volcanic outcroppings that have long been a thorn in relations between South Korea and Japan.