Yi Whan-woo is a Korea Times journalist primarily covering finance. He writes in-depth articles on macroeconomy and financial markets and previously covered sports, politics, diplomacy and inter-Korean affairs, among others. Feel free to contact him at yistory@koreatimes.co.kr.
Ex-Park aide named to lead Sejong Foundation board
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Park Joon-woo
By Yi Whan-woo
By Yi Whan-woo
Park Joon-woo, a former senior presidential secretary for political affairs, was named chairman of the board of trustees at the Sejong Foundation, the organization said Thursday.
Park, 61, will take over the post which has been empty since January last year. His predecessor, Kwon Chul-hyun, quit then in a bid to run for the local elections in June 2014.
The new chairman was President Park Geun-hye’s senior secretary for political affairs from August 2013 to June 2014.
Park, also a former career-diplomat, served as Korea’s ambassador to the European Union from September 2009 to February 2011.
In 2010, Park signed the Korea-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in Brussels.
He served as the Korean ambassador to Singapore in 2006.
Between 2004 and 2005, Park dealt with sensitive historical issues in East Asia as the director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affair’s Asian and Pacific Affairs Bureau. Such issues included the “distorted” depiction of Tokyo’s colonial rule over the Korea Peninsula in Japanese textbooks.
Based in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, the Sejong Foundation was established in 1983 as an independent research institute that specializes on issues concerning national security and inter-Korean relations.
Under its wing, the foundation has the Sejong Institute, a global policy think tank that has nurtured numerous researchers into North Korea, the United States, China and Japan.