CHOI YOUNG-JIN OF REPUBLIC OF KOREA APPOINTED ASSISTANT SECRETARY-GENERAL IN DEPARTMENT OF PEACE-KEEPING OPERATIONS
Press Release
SG/A/679
BIO/3154
CHOI YOUNG-JIN OF REPUBLIC OF KOREA APPOINTED ASSISTANT SECRETARY-GENERAL IN DEPARTMENT OF PEACE-KEEPING OPERATIONS
19980415 Following is the text of a statement attributable to the Spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan:Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed Choi Young-Jin, a national of the Republic of Korea, as Assistant Secretary-General in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. In this position, Choi Young-Jin will succeed Lieutenant-General Manfred Eisele (Germany), who retired on 28 February after more than three years of outstanding service with the United Nations.
Since July 1995, Choi Young-Jin has served as Deputy Executive Director of the Korean Peninsula Energy Organization in New York City. From 1994 to 1995, he served as Director-General of the International Economic Affairs Bureau at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea. Prior to that, from 1991 to 1993, he was First Senior Coordinator in the Policy Planning Office of the Foreign Ministry.
Choi Young-Jin joined the National Foreign Service of the Republic of Korea in 1972. In the course of his distinguished career, he held several diplomatic posts in Dakar, Paris, Tunis and Washington, D.C., as well as various positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of his country. In 1986, he was appointed Director of the International Organizations Division at the Foreign Ministry, and in 1987 became Senior Assistant to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Educated both in the Republic of Korea and in France, Choi Young-Jin graduated from Yonsei University in Seoul, where he received a B.A. in international relations. He hold a M.A. as well as a Ph.D. in international relations from the University of Paris I (Pantheon-Sorbonne) and is an expert in comparative studies on Eastern and Western civilizations.
Born on 29 March 1948, Choi Young-Jin is fluent in English and French and has a good knowledge of Chinese. He is married and has two sons.
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