Impact Player: Lee Su-hoon
Informing audiences about key policy makers in issue areas of importance to U.S.-Korea relations.
September 25, 2017
Who is he?On August 30, 2017, Lee Su-hoon, a Northeast Asia expert, was nominated as South Korea’s new ambassador to Japan. He will be replacing Lee Joon-gyu, the current ambassador, who took the office on July 8, 2016.
Lee Su-hoon served as a key adviser for President Moon Jae-in during his election campaign in early 2017. During the transition period in May 2017, Lee was in charge of Moon’s foreign affairs and national security policies as part of the State Affairs Planning Advisory Committee.
Currently, Lee is an international relations professor at Kyungnam University, where he started his teaching career in 1987. In 2015, Lee was in Japan for a year as a visiting professor at Keio University. His notable experiences include serving as director of the Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES) at Kyungnam University from 2009 to 2014 and as executive director of International Sociological Association from 2002 to 2006.
Lee also has public service experience having served in the Roh Moo-hyun administration. In 2007, Lee was part of Roh’s presidential visiting group to North Korea. In 2005, he served as the chairman of a presidential advisory group for Northeast Asia policies.
Lee completed a Ph.D. in sociology at Johns Hopkins University in 1986. He received his M.A. and B.A. in English literature at Busan University in 1979 and 1977, respectively.
Why has he been in the news?
Lee’s nomination as the ambassador to Japan was announced together with two other ambassadorial nominations of the Republic of Korea. President Moon nominated Cho Yoon-je, former ambassador to the United Kingdom and economic adviser to then-President Roh Moo-hyun, and Noh Young-min, three-term lawmaker of the Democratic Party, as ambassadors to the United States and China, respectively.
On August 30, 2017, Blue House spokesman Park Soo-hyun stated that agreements for the three ambassador appointments have already been filed with their host countries. He added that the process is expected to take up to several weeks.
Presidential spokesman Park expressed confidence in the new appointment stating that Lee is a “foreign affairs and national security expert who is anticipated to contribute to future-oriented relations between Seoul and Tokyo.”
What can we expect from him?
As an expert on Northeast Asia, Lee assisted President Moon in crafting his foreign and security policies on the campaign trail. Lee’s nomination came amid diplomatic tensions over an agreement signed by former president Park Geun-hye in 2015 that aimed to resolve the historical disagreement between South Korea and Japan over wartime comfort women. In an interview with South Korea’s Maeil Business Newspaper in July 2017, Lee stated that renegotiations of this agreement would practically be difficult.
At the same time, rising threats from North Korea and slowing economic growth in both countries call for stronger ties between the two neighbors.
According to Japanese media sources, Lee is expected to adopt a “two-track” diplomatic strategy that separates historical conflicts from areas where bilateral cooperation is possible.
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