Jang-keun Lee

Ambassador Lee Jang-Keun, born in September 1965 in Korea, is a career diplomat of the Republic of Korea who has served the country for more than thirty years.

Ambassador Lee joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea in 1991 when Korea acquired a full membership of the United Nations.

Prior to his appointment in Jakarta in May 2023 as Ambassador of Korea’s Mission to ASEAN, Ambassador Lee held numerous positions in both bilateral and multilateral diplomatic posts. His international assignments have included postings in Budapest, Hungary; Rabat, Morocco; New York, United Nations; Vienna, Austria; Geneva, Switzerland; and Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Ambassador Lee has extensive experience in international organizations and multilateral diplomacy. Within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea, he has held significant positions such as Director of Disarmament and Non- proliferation (2008-2009), Deputy Director-General (2015-2016), and Director-General of International Organizations (2017-2018).

His notable international assignments include serving as First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations in New York (2005-2007), Counsellor of the Korean Mission to the UN and other international organizations in Vienna (2009-2012), and Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the UN and other international organizations in Geneva (2018-2020), where he also led the delegation to the Conference on Disarmament. Additionally, he was a member of the Panel of Experts established under UN Security Council Resolution 1718 (2012-2014) and served as Assistant Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Security in the Office of the President of the Republic of Korea (2014-2015).

Ambassador Lee holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Yonsei University, Seoul (1991), and a master’s degree in international relations from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo, USA (1995).