A career diplomat with over 26 years in the Foreign Service, he has assumed many other important posts that directly relate to North American Affairs. His previous assignments included postings as Director-General for the North American Affairs Bureau and Special Assistant to the Foreign Minister. In the Six-Party Talks, Minister Wi served as Deputy Head of Delegation of the ROK. During these talks, he played a key role in generating ROK proposals, including one made jointly with the US at the Third Round of the Six-Party Talks. He also served in Geneva and Moscow during the early years of his career. Arms Control and Human Rights issues were the main concentration of his assignments in Geneva. When in Moscow, Minister Wi worked on Russian domestic situation, ROK-Russian and DPRK-Russian relations. He completed undergraduate and graduate courses in International Relations from Seoul National University. Minister Wi studied Russian Affairs at the Defense Language Institute (DLI, Pentagon-run school) in Monterey, California and got a Ph.D. from the Institute of International Economics and Political Sciences of Moscow. He published a book titled Russia Report on Russian Domestic and Foreign Policy and was twice awarded by the President and by the Foreign Minister, for contributions to ROK's ‘ Nordpolitik' and for ‘best report' respectively. Minister Wi is married with two sons.
This page last updated 10/12/2005 jdb |
|
ICAS Home Page |
ICAS Fellow Roster |
Speakers & Discussants |
Contact ICAS |
ICAS Lectures |