List of ambassadors of South Korea to the United States information
Ambassador of South Korea to the United States
주 미합중국 대한민국 특명전권대사
Emblem of South Korea
Incumbent Cho Hyun-dong since April 14, 2023
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Style
Mr. Ambassador (informal) His Excellency (diplomatic)
Reports to
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Seat
2450 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C.
Appointer
The President
Term length
No fixed term
Formation
February 2, 1949; 75 years ago (1949-02-02)
First holder
Chang Myon
Website
overseas.mofa.go.kr/us-ko
The South Korean ambassador to the United States (Korean: 주미대한민국대사; Hanja: 駐美大韓民國大使) is the chief diplomatic representative of the Republic of Korea accredited to the United States.
After the independence of Korea from Japanese rule in 1945, and the founding of Republic of Korea (South Korea) in 1948, South Korea immediately restored normal diplomatic relationship with the United States and has since been sending ambassadors to the United States.[1] Although Chang Myon is officially recorded as the first ambassador serving from February 1949, Chough Pyung-ok was recognized in August 1948 as the Special Representative of the President of South Korea with a personal rank of Ambassador. Chang replaced Chough in January 1949 in the same capacity, and was appointed as the first ambassador the following month.[2]
South Korea has so far sent twenty-four ambassadors to the United States, excluding 2 Chargé d'affaires a.i. (Koo Chong-whay and Oh Jay-hee).[2] As Chung Il-kwon served twice as the third and fifth ambassador, a total of twenty-three different people have served in the position.[3]
Reflecting the United States' significance to South Korea's diplomacy, almost all of these ambassadors have been chosen from elites in their respective fields. For instance, the four most recent ambassadors have all been either career diplomats who had served in the high levels of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (e.g., Ahn Ho-young, Choi Young-jin, and Lee Tae-sik), or in high government positions such as Prime Minister and head of the Finance Ministry (e.g., Han Duck-soo) before being appointed to Washington, D.C.
A complete list of ambassadors is provided below in the order of appointment. All held the title of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary while in office.[3]
^Some might argue that it was Kingdom of Joseon who established diplomatic relationship with the U.S. in 1882 and that as both South and North Korea stemmed from Kingdom of Joseon South Korea's diplomatic relations with the U.S. should begin in 1948 instead of 1882. Although this may be technically correct, as a matter of fact both South Korea and the U.S. consider their initial diplomatic relationship established in 1882, the evidence of which can be found from these websites: [1] Archived 2017-12-20 at the Wayback Machine and [2]
^ ab"Diplomatic Representation for South Korea". Washington, D.C.: Office of the Chief of Protocol. 2013-06-07. Retrieved 2013-10-17.
^ ab"주 미국 대한민국 대사관". overseas.mofa.go.kr.
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