Biographical Note

Secretary-General Appoints Young-Bum Choi of Republic of Korea as Head of Mission,

United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon today announced the appointment of Major General Young-Bum Choi of the Republic of Korea as Chief Military Observer and Head of Mission of the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP).

Major General Choi succeeds Major General Raul Gloodtdofsky Fernandez of Uruguay, who will complete his assignment on 15 June.  The Secretary-General is grateful to Major General Gloodtdofsky for his exemplary and highly professional service in UNMOGIP over the past year.

Major General Choi will bring to his new position extensive and wide-ranging experience, including prior service in United Nations peacekeeping.  Major General Choi has had a distinguished military career since joining the Army of the Republic of Korea in 1982, including serving as Chief Director of the Wartime Operational Control Transition Group, and Chief of the Ground Forces Branch of the Republic of Korea-United States Combined Forces Command.  In 2006, he also served as Chief of the Civil Military Cooperation Center of the Republic of Korea contingent in Iraq and has had command experience including with the 111^th Regiment, 37^th Infantry Division of the Army of the Republic of Korea.

In addition, Major General Choi served as Commander of the Republic of Korea Medical Support Group in the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) in 2000.

Major General Choi attended the Army Infantry School, Army War College and the Joint Staff College in the Republic of Korea, as well as the United States Defense System Management College in Fort Belvoir, Virginia.  He has also been a visiting scholar at the University of Maryland and the George Washington University.

Born in 1959, he is married, with two children.

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For information media • not an official record