Speaker Abstract:

Ambassador Oh Joon is a professor of United Nations studies at Kyung Hee University in Seoul and a former Ambassador of the Republic of Korea. He was Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations in New York from 2013 to 2016. During this time, he served as the 71^st President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and as President of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2015 and 2016. He was also Ambassador of the Republic of Korea in Singapore from 2010-13 and Deputy Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Seoul from 2008-10.

His other international activities include those as a member of the High Level Panel on the Future of Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) from 2016-17; a member of the Korea Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum (WEF) from 2010-13; the Chair of the United Nations Disarmament Commission (UNDC) in 2006; and the Chair of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) from 2004-05.

The ROK Government awarded him an Order of Service Merit twice, in 1996 and 2006. In 2014, he received the Youngsan Diplomat Award for his work on North Korean human rights issues. Rehabilitation International awarded him the Global Presidential Award in 2016 in acknowledgment for his achievements as President of CRPD. He published his first book in Korean “For Mica, Who Contemplates Life” in 2015.

He received a Master’s degree in International Policy Studies from Stanford University (1991-92). He is married with two children.