Biographical Note

SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS CHOI YOUNG-JIN OF REPUBLIC OF KOREA

 

AS SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR CÔTE D’IVOIRE

 

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Choi Young-jin of the Republic of Korea as his Special Representative for Côte d’Ivoire.  Mr. Choi replaces Pierre Schori of Sweden.

Mr. Choi was the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations from 2005 to 2007.

Prior to that appointment, he was the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade (2004).  He served in 2003 as Chancellor of IFANS ( Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security), also in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

In 2002, Mr. Choi was Ambassador to Austria and Slovenia, and Permanent Representative to all international organizations in Vienna, Austria.  From 2000 to 2001, he was Deputy Minister for Policy Planning and International Organizations, responsible for, among other things, foreign policy planning, North Korean affairs, the United Nations system, disarmament and non-proliferation, and democracy and human rights.

Mr. Choi served as Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations at the United Nations (1998-1999), during which time he oversaw planning and support for 17 peacekeeping operations, including those in Kosovo, Timor-Leste, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

From 1995 to 1997, he was the Deputy Executive Director of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, based in New York City.  His duties included overseeing a $5 billion project to construct two light-water nuclear reactors in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he was Director-General of the International Economic Affairs Bureau from 1994 to 1995.  From 1991 to 1993, he was First Senior Coordinator in the Ministry’s Office of Policy Planning.  He was an Economic Counsellor at the Korean Embassy in Washington, D.C., from 1988 to 1990.

He also served in the following capacities:  Senior Assistant to the Minister for Foreign Affairs in Seoul (1987); Director, International Organizations Division (1986); Political Counsellor, Republic of Korea Embassy, Tunis, Tunisia (1983-1985); Director, Cultural Exchanges Division, Seoul (1981); Political Officer, Paris, France (1979-1981); and Political Officer, Dakar, Senegal (1977-1978).

Among his academic achievements, Mr. Choi earned his master’s and doctorate degrees in international relations from the University of Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne), respectively, in 1980 and 1985.  He received his bachelor’s degree with distinction in 1973 from the Department of International Relations, Yonsei University.  This year, he was a resident diplomat scholar at the Fletcher School of Law, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts.  He is fluent in both English and French, and knows 3,000 characters in Chinese.

Born on 29 March 1948 in Seoul, Republic of Korea, Mr. Choi is married with two sons.

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*     This supersedes Press Release BIO/3692-GA/DIS/3293 of 13 September 2005.

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