Asan Institute founder to attend memorial service for Kissinger

Asan Institute for Policy Studies founder Chung Mong-joon, right, poses with former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger during a luncheon in New York in this January 2023 file photo. Courtesy of Asan Institute for Policy Studies

Chung Mong-joon, founder of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, will attend a memorial service for the late former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, which will be held in New York on Thursday, as the bereaved family invited the late Hyundai Group founder’s sixth-oldest son, the institute said Sunday.

From 2008 to 2023, Chung and Kissinger had over 10 official and private meetings. Therefore, the institute issued a statement for the deceased diplomat last November, when he died at the age of 100.

In January 2008, Chung met Kissinger in New York, during his visit to the U.S. as then President-elect Lee Myung-bak’s special envoy to meet then-U.S. President George W. Bush.

The two had another meeting in Washington, D.C., in December of that year, when Chung was a lawmaker serving as the chairman of the Grand National Party’s special committee on Korea-U.S. vision during the U.S. presidential transition period.

Kissinger, who met with Chung’s father in 1985 when he stopped by Seoul on his way to China, also came to Korea in March 2012 as the leader of the Eminent Persons Group for the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit and attended a dinner hosted by Chung.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Chung made a donation honoring Kissinger’s achievements and contributions to international peace and stability to the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. Chung also donated to the Center for Strategic and International Studies to support the new Strategy and Statecraft Fellowship in Kissinger’s honor.

Their last meeting was in January 2023 for lunch in New York, where they exchanged views on the international situation and issues on the Korean Peninsula.

The Asan Institute said that Chung will deliver a message of condolence to the widow, Nancy Kissinger.

Chung plans to appreciate the late diplomat’s wise counsel on a wide range of issues facing the Korean Peninsula and the future of Asia, emphasizing that his scholarly and intellectual achievements have influenced how people around the world view the U.S. and the international order.