Professor Jong Kun Choi is currently a Professor of International Relations and International Security at Yonsei University, one of the top three universities in South Korea and a priority partner to the University of Bath.
Professor Choi served as the first civilian 1st Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs (2020-22) and Secretary For Peace Planning/Peace and Arms Control (2017-22) in President Moon Jae-In's administration, during which he led South Korea’s negotiation team to conclude the Comprehensive Military Agreement with North Korea. A fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar, Prof Choi is a highly published academic with articles in the Washington Quarterly, Review of International Studies, International Security, Global Asia, International Politics, and International Relations of the Asia Pacific, among others.
Professor Choi will be hosted by Professor Timo Kivimaki in the Department of Politics, Languages & International Studies. Regarding Prof Choi's appointment as a Bath Global Chair, Prof Kivimaki said:
We are excited to host Professor Jong Kun Choi again at the university, this time as a Global Chair. Professor Choi is an exceptional intellectual with practical and academic achievements of the highest level. In addition to being a world-renowned academic expert of global and Northeast Asian regional security affairs and a full professor at one of world’s leading universities in his field of expertise, Prof Choi excelled as the Presidential Secretary for Peace and Arms Control in President Moon Jae-in’s administration, and was the first deputy Foreign Minister of South Korea until the end of President Moon’s term. During his time in the South Korean government, prospects for peace on the Korean Peninsula progressed spectacularly. A significant part of this progress can be attributed to the work done by Prof Choi, including an important contribution to the negotiation of the Military Agreement for the Implementation of the Historic Panmunjom Declaration between North and South Korea, of October 2018. We are honoured and thrilled to welcome Professor Choi back to Bath, not only as a Global Chair, but also as a dear friend to many of our academics at the University of Bath.
Proposed Activities at Bath
- Hybrid meetings with undergraduate and postgraduate students on dissertation topics related to Korean peace and security
- Global Chair public lecture at the University of Bath
- Collaboration with Bath academics on developing joint research projects
- PhD workshops for PoLIS PGRs
- Public lecture at the Royal Society of Arts
- A visit to London to meet with UK politicians, political advisors and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
