Yu Myung-hwan

Yu Myung-hwan
Hangeul	유명환
Hanja	柳明桓
Revised Romanization	Yu Myeong-hwan
McCune- Reischauer	Yu Myŏnghwan
See also : Korean name

Yu Myung-hwan (born April 8, 1946 ) is a South Korean diplomat and politician .

Life

After attending school, he studied at the Faculty of Public Administration at Seoul National University and graduated in February 1970. In July 1973, he entered the diplomatic service . During this time he completed postgraduate studies at the Institute for Social Sciences in The Hague , which he completed in July 1974.

Diplomatic career

In February 1976 he became Third Secretary at the Embassy in Japan . After his return, he was assistant secretary in the office of then Presidents Choi Kyu-ha and Chun Doo-hwan between December 1979 and July 1981 . Then he found a use as first secretary at the embassy in Singapore and then from June 1983 to May 1985 as Counselor (Counselor) at the Embassy in Barbados .

Upon his return, he was again assistant secretary in the office of President Chun Doo-hwan, before becoming director of the North America division in the State Department's Office of American Affairs in September 1986 . Between January and October 1988 he was Executive Secretary of Foreign Minister Choi Kwang-soo and subsequently Counselor at the Embassy in the USA . In December 1991, he returned to the State Department where he became Assistant Director General of the Bureau of American Affairs. After almost nine months in this position, he became spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in August 1992.

In January 1994 he was appointed envoy to the Permanent Mission of South Korea to the United Nations in New York . He returned to Seoul in March 1995 and became Secretary of Foreign Affairs to President Kim Young-sam before serving as Director General of the American Affairs Bureau at the State Department between March 1996 and April 1998. In April 1998 he was posted as an envoy to the US Embassy until August 2001, when he became special advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Han Seung-soo . In December 2001, Foreign Minister Han Seung-soo appointed him Ambassador for Afghan Affairs and Counter-Terrorism .

Yu Myung-hwan became ambassador to Israel in March 2002 and from March 2004 to July 2005 ambassador to the Philippines . In July 2005, he returned to Seoul, where he was Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs under the Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministers Ban Ki-moon and Song Min-soon until March 2007 . He was then sent to Japan as an ambassador .

Foreign Minister of South Korea

Finally, on February 29, 2009, President Lee Myung-bak appointed him Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Han Seung-soo's cabinet to succeed Song Min-soon . On September 4, 2010, after media reports about nepotism regarding his daughter's employment in the ministry, he offered to resign. He was succeeded as Minister of Foreign Affairs on October 1, 2010 by Kim Sung-hwan .

Web links

Commons : Yu Myung-hwan  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Curriculum vitae on the homepage of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( Memento from July 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ^ William Sim: South Korea Foreign Minister Yu Myung Hwan Offers to Quit, Spokesman Says . In: Bloomberg , September 4, 2010. 
2. ↑ Hoo Nam Seelmann: The old game of power. The Koreans and the political (in) morality , NZZ from September 24, 2010.
3. ↑ Kleine Zeitung: New Prime Minister and New Foreign Minister in South Korea , October 1, 2010

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Korean. Yu is the family name here, Myung-hwan is the first name.