Involved in Japan Policy Pledges Since Yoon Camp Days
Leading Japan Expert... Expected to Be Appointed Next Month
Park Cheol-hee, President of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, is reported to have been nominated as the next Ambassador to Japan.
According to a senior government official on the 24th, the government has been strongly considering President Park as the next Ambassador to Japan. It is known that the personnel screening was recently completed and the agrement was requested from the Japanese government. Agrement is a procedure to confirm whether the host country has any objections before dispatching a diplomatic envoy.
President Park is a prominent Japan expert. He graduated from the Department of Political Science at Seoul National University, earned a master's degree in political science from the same university's graduate school, and obtained a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University in the United States.
He has emphasized the need for future-oriented cooperation between Korea and Japan and is known to have been closely involved in Japan-related pledges since President Yoon Seok-yeol's campaign period. He also served as a specialist member of the Foreign Affairs and Security Subcommittee of the Transition Committee. During the transition period, he visited Japan as part of the Korea-Japan Policy Consultation delegation dispatched by the president-elect.
President Park served as the director of the Institute of International Studies at Seoul National University before moving to the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, a government-affiliated national research institute under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in March last year. The position of President of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy is equivalent to a vice-ministerial level. In addition, he has served as a member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' internal evaluation committee and as a policy advisory member for the Ministry of National Defense, and is evaluated to have a strong network across Japanese political and academic circles.
Once the agrement procedure, expected to take about a month, is completed, the formal replacement of the Ambassador to Japan is expected to take place next month.
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