By Lee Tae-hoon
President Lee Myung-bak named Choi Young-jin, a former vice foreign minister and ambassador to the United Nations, as ambassador to the United States, Thursday, to fill the post left by the sudden departure of Han Duck-soo.
Foreign ministry spokesman Cho Byung-jae said Choi will succeed Han, who quit last week to become chairman of the Korea International Trade Association.
“We have requested an agrement (a diplomatic procedure required before a formal appointment) for Choi to the U.S.,” he said.
“We plan to accelerate the appointment process in order to minimize an administrative vacuum caused by Han’s departure.”
It usually takes one month or two for an agreement to be granted, but Cho said that Washington may speed up the procedure and give the green light in just three to four weeks.
“U.S. Ambassador-designate Choi is known as a veteran diplomat with rich experience in working on bilateral and multilateral matters,” Cho said.
“He is the most ideal person to maintain and further develop the alliance of South Korea and the United States for having personally handled numerous pending matters between the two countries.”
Choi has served as special representative of the United Nations secretary general for Cote d’Ivoire after being appointed by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in October 2007.
He played a key role in ending the division of the African country caused by civil war, and stabilization of its politics.
Choi majored in international relations at Yonsei University and obtained his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Paris I in 1980 and 1985, respectively.
Prior to these studies, Choi had studied medicine at the Severance Medical College in Korea for four years.
He was the permanent representative of Korea to the United Nations from 2005 to 2007. In 2004, he worked as the vice minister of foreign affairs and trade.
Choi also served as ambassador to Austria and Slovenia, and permanent representative to all international organizations in Vienna, Austria.
His predecessor Han replaced KITA head Sakong Il, whose three-year term ended this Wednesday.
Sakong was widely viewed as a candidate to take Han’s post, but he declined to do so, saying he would like to“take a rest.”
On Wednesday, President Lee approved the appointments of 18 new ambassadors and five new consuls general in an annual reshuffle of diplomats.
The list included former Ambassador to Colombia Hong Seong-hoa, who will serve as ambassador to Mexico, and former Ambassador to Peru Han Byung-kil as the top Korean envoy in Argentina.