Seoul names new ambassador to UNESCO

Lee Byong-hyun

By Do Je-hae

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs named Lee Byong-hyun to lead its UNESCO mission in Paris, Monday.

The career diplomat succeeds Lee Sang-jin, who resigned last month, as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the UNESCO.

There has been some media interest in who will fill the post, in light of Japan’s campaign to list some wartime site industrial sites as UNESCO heritage. The foreign ministry is opposed to the bid, saying that Japan's campaign is not consistent with the spirit of the world heritage list.

As new head of the mission, Lee’s immediate task will be to promote Korea’s position to a member state of the World Heritage Committee, which will come to a decision on Japan’s proposal during sessions between June 28 and July 8.

Japan’s proposal contains a request to consider the universal values of iron works in Nagasaki, coal mines in Takashima, and other sites in Kyushu and Yamaguchi Prefecture, among others. Some of these sites were built at the cost of slave laborers from the Korean Peninsula during the Japanese occupation (1910-1945).

The Seoul National University graduate joined the ministry in 1979 and served at Korean embassies in Portugal, Rwanda, and the United Nations before being named ambassador to Norway in 2010. From 2008 through 2010, he served as minister at the Korean Embassy in France, where he oversaw UNESCO affairs.

Lee had been leading the National Institute for International Education since 2013.