GC REAIM Co-Chair
Byung-se YUN served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea from March 2013 until June 2017 (longest serving Foreign Minister after 1981). Prior to that, he served as Deputy National Security Adviser (Senior Secretary) to the President responsible for Korea’s foreign, defense and unification policy and as Senior Coordinator at the National Security Council of the Presidential Office.
As a career diplomat with 37 year-long experience, his foreign postings include the United States, the United Nations in New York and Geneva, Singapore and Australia. At the headquarters, he was Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade when Ban Ki-moon, former UN Secretary-General, was the Foreign Minister. He graduated from Seoul National University’s College of Law and received a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University’s Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He was a Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS) of Sogang University in Seoul from 2009 until early 2013.
He is currently Chairman of Seoul International Law Academy (SILA), Chairman of Cheong Wa Dae (Blue House) Foundation, and Chairman of NEAR Global Survey Project. He is also on the board of Korea Peace Foundation and the NEAR Foundation and is affiliated with several global ex-leaders’ forums and projects on international peace and security, non-proliferation and geopolitical risks. His global survey report 2023 on the world order was published in English and in Korean by the NEAR Foundation under the title of “Quo Vadit Mundus: Competing for Order in a Fragmenting World”.
He regularly contributes his writings to the Korea JoongAng Daily and the Korea Times and moderates the annual CSIS-JoongAng Conference and other forums frequently.
