KOREA WHO

Cho Hyun is South Korea’s first Minister of Foreign Affairs under President Lee Jae-myung.

Amid rising trade and security pressure from the U.S. Trump administration, he has been striving to implement the Lee administration’s principle of “pragmatic diplomacy.”

He is also making efforts to improve relations with neighboring countries around the Korean Peninsula, including China, Japan, and Russia.

He was born in Gimje, North Jeolla Province, in 1957.

He graduated from Jeonju High School and earned a degree in Political Science and Diplomacy from Yonsei University. He received a master’s degree in international politics from Columbia University in the United States and Sciences Po in France, and later obtained a doctorate in political science from the University of Toulouse in France.

In 1979, he passed the Diplomatic Service Examination.

He served as Second Secretary at the embassies in Belgium, the Central African Republic, and Senegal, and as First Secretary at the embassy in the United States, before working at the OECD Secretariat. He also held positions as Director-General of the International Economic Bureau at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador for Energy and Resources Affairs, and Coordinator for Multilateral Diplomacy.

He later served as Ambassador to Austria, Ambassador to India, Second Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

He is regarded as a distinguished expert in multilateral trade diplomacy, recognized for his tactical acumen.