Nam Hyun-woo has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2013, mostly covering business and politics. He currently belongs to the Business Desk where he covers topics such as emerging tech, AI, ICT and Korea's chaebol community. Prior to joining the team, he was the paper's correspondent for the presidential office of Korea during the Yoon Suk Yeol and Moon Jae-in administrations.
Yoon names academics, career diplomats as envoys to China, Japan and Russia
From left are Hwang Joon-kook, Yun Duk-min, Chung Jae-ho and Chang Ho-jin, who have been appointed as South Korea's ambassadors to the United Nations, Japan, China and Russia, respectively. Courtesy of presidential office
By Nam Hyun-woo
President names ambassadors to Japan, China, Russia, completing lineup of envoys to 4 key foreign postings
By Nam Hyun-woo
President Yoon Suk-yeol on Tuesday named South Korea's ambassadors to Japan, China and Russia, completing the appointments of envoys to the country's four key foreign postings.
According to the presidential office, Yoon tapped Yun Duk-min, Chung Jae-ho and Chang Ho-jin as ambassador plenipotentiary to Japan, China and Russia, respectively. Former lawmaker Cho Tae-yong had already been appointed as ambassador to the U.S. on May 17.
They will work officially as ambassadors to those countries after presenting their credentials to the host governments.
Yun, appointed as ambassador to Japan, is a chair professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, and had been chancellor of the Korean National Diplomatic Academy during the conservative Park Geun-hye administration.
He has been vocal in the improvement of South Korea-Japan relations, calling for a prompt resolution of a conflict between the neighboring countries over Japan's World War II atrocities and compensation for wartime Korean laborers during Japan's forced occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945. That conflict was aggravated following the South Korean Supreme Court's 2018 ruling against Japanese companies and ordering them to compensate surviving South Korean victims of wartime forced labor.
During his speech at a conference hosted by the Nikkei last month, Yun said, “The Yoon government will not let Seoul-Tokyo relations aggravate further.” At the time, he floated the idea of the South Korean government compensating the victims and collecting the money from Japanese firms by organizing a fund, adding it is his personal view.
“The most important task for the ambassador to Japan will be resolving the strained Seoul-Tokyo relations,” an official at the presidential office said. “If he is officially appointed, I expect he will focus on this matter.”
Chung, appointed as ambassador to China, is also a scholar ― a diplomacy professor at Seoul National University. He served as the head of the university's Institute for China Studies, and is known as an expert in the trilateral relations between South Korea, China and the U.S.
During an interview last year with JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, Chung said South Korea's strategic ambiguity about the U.S.-China rivalry is “on its last legs,” and the country “should not be afraid of raising its voice on pending diplomatic matters,” if they are deemed necessary to national interests.
This is in line with Yoon's diplomatic initiative for “a global pivot state” that envisions a heightened role in advancing freedom, peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region.
Chang, appointed as ambassador to Russia, is a chair professor at Korea Maritime & Ocean University. He spent most of his career as a diplomat, serving as presidential secretary for foreign policy during the conservative Lee Myung-bak administration and as a political councilor at the South Korean Embassy to Russia.
South Korean Ambassador to the U.S. Cho Tae-yong speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at the National Assembly in Seoul, in this Jan. 18, 2021, file photo. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk
With this latest announcement, Yoon has completed the appointments of South Korea's top envoys to its four major diplomatic postings.
The president opted to pick diplomatic experts as his top envoys, which contrasts with his predecessor, Moon Jae-in, who named political appointees as ambassadors to those countries. Cho was a lawmaker with the People Power Party before taking the job, but he is better known as a career diplomat.
This is interpreted as Yoon's acknowledgement that the current diplomatic situation surrounding South Korea is grave, with the country being intertwined in the U.S.' rivalries with China and Russia.
As Yoon steers the country's diplomacy to strengthening the alliance with the U.S., pressures from China and Russia are expected to weigh on Seoul in terms of economic ties and cooperation over North Korea issues. To address challenges stemming from these dynamics, Yoon appears to have chosen experts with rich diplomatic experience, watchers said.
Minister of Office for Government Policy Coordination nominee Bang Moon-kyu / Courtesy of presidential office
Meanwhile, Hwang Joon-kook was appointed as South Korea's permanent representative to the United Nations. Yoon also named Export-Import Bank of Korea Chairman and President Bang Moon-kyu as the minister of the Office for Government Policy Coordination and Credit Finance Association Chairman Kim Joo-hyun as the new chairman of the Financial Services Commission.
Bang is a bureaucrat, having served as second vice minister of economy and finance and vice minister of health and welfare, and was recommended to the position by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo.
Initially, Han proposed Industrial Bank of Korea Chairman & CEO Yoon Jong-won for the post, but ended up facing protests from the ruling People Power Party (PPP) due to his experience of serving as senior presidential secretary for economic affairs during the previous liberal Moon administration.