Lee Soo-hyuck

Lee Soo-hyuck entered the foreign ministry in 1975 and became closely involved in negotiations over North Korea. He participated in the Four-Party Talks in 1997 and headed South Korea's first delegation to the Six-Party Talks in 2003. His overseas career included service as minister counselor in Washington and ambassador to Yugoslavia and Germany; in Seoul he became deputy minister for political affairs and first deputy director of the National Intelligence Service. ¹

Lee also pursued an academic and political career. He taught at Dankook University, wrote books on German unification and the North Korean nuclear issue, and served in the twentieth National Assembly on its Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee. He returned to Washington as ambassador in October 2019. ¹

His ambassadorship spanned the COVID-19 emergency and the transition from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. A University of Virginia program in September 2020 brought him into public discussion of Korea's pandemic response, regional security, and education. In May 2021 he was part of President Moon Jae-in's delegation at the meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris, whose agenda joined health, security, and climate cooperation with issues on the Korean Peninsula. ^{2, 3}