Han Seung-soo

Han Seung-soo trained as an economist at Yonsei, Seoul National, and York universities, receiving his doctorate at York in 1968. He taught at York and Cambridge before joining Seoul National University, where he remained from 1970 to 1988. A World Bank assignment took him to Jordan as a financial adviser in 1974–1976. Elected to the National Assembly in 1988, he became trade and industry minister and participated in the establishment of APEC. ¹

As ambassador in Washington in 1993–1994, Han dealt with the first North Korean nuclear crisis. He recalled briefing Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter at his residence before their June 1994 journey to Pyongyang, explaining Seoul's position and supplying the former president with texts of earlier inter-Korean agreements. ²

After Washington, Han became presidential chief of staff and then deputy prime minister and finance minister. His economic responsibilities included Korea's accession to the OECD in 1996 and measures supporting venture businesses and the KOSDAQ market. As foreign minister in 2001–2002, he also presided over the UN General Assembly's fifty-sixth session. He took part in the January 2002 Tokyo conference on reconstruction assistance to Afghanistan. ¹

Han later served as a UN special envoy on climate change in 2007–2008 and as prime minister in 2008–2009. His international work increasingly concerned environmental risks, including leadership of the High-Level Expert Panel on Water and Disaster. ³