Cho Yoon-je

Cho Yoon-je brought a career in economics to diplomacy. He worked at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and taught at Sogang University. Under President Roh Moo-hyun he served as economic adviser from 2003 to 2005 and then ambassador to Britain until 2008. After Moon Jae-in's election in 2017, Cho was sent as a special envoy to the European Union and Germany before being selected for Washington. ¹

His 2017–2019 ambassadorship coincided with the turn from acute nuclear tensions to summit diplomacy with North Korea. In April 2018 he and acting Assistant Secretary of State Susan Thornton were reported to be preparing regular meetings to coordinate the approaching summits. Later that year, speaking from the embassy, Cho defended continued dialogue and argued that gradual, verifiable gains offered a more realistic path than immediately resolving decades of hostility. ^{2, 3}

After returning to Korea, Cho moved back into economic policy. In April 2020 he was designated for the Bank of Korea's Monetary Policy Board, as the central bank confronted the economic shock of the coronavirus pandemic. ⁴