Cheong Wa Dae "Extensive Practical Experience in US Diplomacy and North Korean Denuclearization"
[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Blue House announced on the 14th a vice minister-level personnel reshuffle and appointed Choi Jong-geon, Secretary for Peace Planning at the Blue House National Security Office, as the new First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The newly appointed Vice Minister Choi has been overseeing North Korea-U.S. denuclearization negotiations and inter-Korean exchange and cooperation projects at the Blue House. He is expected to resume the stalled North Korea-U.S. dialogue and provide diplomatic support to expand inter-Korean exchange and cooperation projects, a long-cherished goal of the Moon Jae-in administration.
The Blue House explained in a briefing, "Vice Minister Choi is a former professor of political diplomacy and has served as Secretary for Peace Planning at the National Security Office under the Moon Jae-in administration. Based on his expertise in foreign affairs and security, he has accumulated extensive practical experience in U.S. diplomacy and North Korean denuclearization, and we expect him to carry out the national agenda of ‘confident diplomacy leading international cooperation’ without any setbacks."
Vice Minister Choi served as a professor at Yonsei University before joining the Blue House in July 2017 as Secretary for Peace and Arms Control under the First Deputy Director of the National Security Office with the launch of the Moon Jae-in administration.
After the Peace and Arms Control Secretariat was abolished in March last year, and the Peace Planning Secretariat was newly established under the Second Deputy Director of the National Security Office, Vice Minister Choi was appointed Secretary for Peace Planning. He has been deeply involved in North Korea-U.S. denuclearization negotiations as well as inter-Korean exchange and cooperation projects. He is known as part of the so-called ‘Yonjeong Line’ (Yonsei University Department of Political Science alumni), along with Moon Chung-in, Special Advisor for Unification, Foreign Affairs and Security, and former Second Deputy Director Kim Ki-jung.
Born in 1974, Vice Minister Choi graduated from the Department of Political Science at the University of Rochester in the U.S., earned a master's degree in political science from Yonsei University, and obtained a Ph.D. in political science from Ohio State University in the U.S.
【 Education 】
- All Saints' College, Australia
- University of Rochester, Department of Political Science, U.S.
- Yonsei University, Master's in Political Science
- Ohio State University, Ph.D. in Political Science, U.S.
【 Career 】
- Secretary for Peace Planning, National Security Office (Current)
- Associate Professor, Department of Political Diplomacy, Yonsei University
- Secretary for Peace and Arms Control, National Security Office
- Policy Advisory Member, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Peace Negotiation Headquarters for the Korean Peninsula
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