Southern Gold Ltd (ASX:SAU) has strengthened its focus on South Korea through the appointment of Bee Jay Kim as a director of the company.

Mr Kim has also been appointed to a fulltime role as executive director – South Korea based in South Korea.

The new director has extensive project delivery and team management experience in South Korea and abroad.

Southern Gold's shares have surged up to 20% to an intra-day high of 21 cents, which is equal to the 12-month high.

Kim has had a long career with Samsung C&T Corporation as well as with Hyundai Engineering and Construction spanning around 30 years.

As a senior executive for Samsung C&T, Kim led projects in several countries and regions including the Middle East, Australia and South East Asia.

His experience involved the more recent positions of vice president and regional representative of Saudi Arabia LLC and head of MENA regional office in the UAE for Samsung C&T.

Augment “in-country experience”

Southern Gold chairman Greg Boulton said: “Having recently sold our Western Australian assets and flagged our strategic decision to focus on our opportunity in South Korea, Bee Jay’s appointment will augment our in-country experience and enable our senior executive team to build long-term relationships in South Korea.”

While Kim’s career has been in construction or infrastructure investment, his experience includes two years in Australia where he set up Samsung C&T’s Australian office and was involved in several project tenders including the successful winning of a major iron ore infrastructure project in Western Australia.

South Korean portfolio

Southern Gold owns a portfolio of high-grade gold projects in South Korea that are largely greenfield gold-silver targets in the southwest of the country.

Backed by a first-class technical team, including renowned geologist Douglas Kirwin, Southern Gold’s aim is to find world-class epithermal gold-silver deposits in a jurisdiction that has had very little modern exploration.