Cho Tae-yong (Korean: 조태용; Hanja: 趙太庸; born 29 August 1956) is a South Korean career diplomat with over three decades of experience who served as South Korea's National Security Advisor from March[1][2] to December 2023. On January 16, 2024, he was appointed Director of the National Intelligence Service of South Korea.
Cho Tae-yong | |
|---|---|
| 조태용 | |
.jpg) | |
| Director of the National Intelligence Service | |
| Assumed office 16 January 2024 | |
| President | Yoon Suk-yeol |
| Preceded by | Kim Kyou-hyun |
| Director of the National Security Office | |
| In office 30 March 2023 – 31 December 2023 | |
| President | Yoon Suk-yeol |
| Preceded by | Kim Sung-han |
| Succeeded by | Chang Ho-jin |
| South Korean Ambassador to the United States | |
| In office 11 June 2022 – 29 March 2023 | |
| President | Yoon Suk-yeol |
| Preceded by | Lee Soo-hyuck |
| Succeeded by | Cho Hyun-dong |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 29 August 1956 Seoul, South Korea |
| Political party | Independent |
| Alma mater | Seoul National University (BA) |
Cho has extensive experience in a range of high-level diplomatic assignments dealing with the United States and North Korea. In November 2016, he represented South Korea in talks with Michael Flynn and other members of then-U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's foreign policy team on North Korea.[3] He and then-U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken held five rounds of U.S.-South Korea strategic consultations on North Korea between 2015 and 2017.[4] As South Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister between 2014 and 2015, he represented South Korea in regular U.S.-South Korea-Japan trilateral talks with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama.[5]
He is not to be confused with Cho Tae-yul, a similarly named South Korean career diplomat who was South Korea's Second Vice Foreign Minister of Affairs until 2016 and currently serves as the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations.[6]
Early life
editCho was born in Seoul in 1956, and received his bachelor's degree in political science from Seoul National University.[7]
Career
editAmong various other positions, Cho was previously South Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2014 to 2015 and South Korea's Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs from 2013 to 2014. Cho also previously served as the South Korean Ambassador to Australia from 2011 to 2013, Ambassador to Ireland from 2008 to 2009, and Director General of the North American Affairs Bureau of the South Korean Foreign Ministry from 2006 to 2007.
Cho has been working on North Korean affairs since 2004.[7] He was Director General of the South Korean foreign ministry's Task Force on North Korea, and deputy head of the South Korean delegation to the six-party talks in Beijing in 2004.[8] He was named South Korea's special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs in 2013, and then became Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2014.[7][9]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Impact Player: Cho Tae-yong". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
- ^ "The Leaderboard: Cho Tae-yong | cogitASIA CSIS Asia Policy Blog". www.cogitasia.com. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
- ^ "Trump's national security adviser vows to tackle North Korea..." Reuters. 19 November 2016. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
- ^ "01/03/17 - Visit of Republic of Korea (ROK) Deputy National Security Advisor Cho Tae-yong". U.S. Embassy & Consulate in Korea. 3 January 2017. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
- ^ "Deputy Secretary of State Blinken Travel to Japan and the Republic of Korea". U.S. Department of State. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
- ^ United Nations Press Release, 5 Dec 2016, https://www.un.org/press/en/2016/bio4906.doc.htm
- ^ a b c 김정률 [Kim Jeong-ryul] (20 October 2015). [새 차관급 내정자 프로필] 조태용 국가안보실 1차장(59) [Profiles of new vice-minister-level nominees: Cho Tae-yong (age 59), Vice-Director of the Office of National Security]. Yeongnam Ilbo. Archived from the original on 19 September 2018. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
- ^ "North Korean Delegation in Beijing for Talks". The Chosun Ilbo. 20 June 2004. Retrieved 20 February 2011.
- ^ "S. Korea, U.S., Japan set for trilateral talks on N. Korea". Yonhap News Agency. 13 June 2013. Retrieved 18 June 2013.