Byung-se YUN served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea from March 2013 until June 2017, becoming the longest-serving Foreign Minister since 1981. Prior to that, he served as Deputy National Security Adviser to the President responsible for Korea’s foreign, defense and unification policy and as Senior Coordinator at the National Security Council.  

As a career diplomat with 37 years of experience, he served in postings including the United States, the United Nations in New York and Geneva, Singapore and Australia. At the headquarters, he was Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs. He graduated from Seoul National University’s College of Law, earned a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University’s Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, and later served as a Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of International Studies of Sogang University in Seoul.  

He currently serves as Chairman of Seoul International Law Academy, Chair of the REAIM Global Commission (Military AI). He is on the board of Korea Peace Foundation and the NEAR Foundation and is affiliated with several global ex-leaders’ forums. 

He is a co-editor of the recent book “Korea-U.S.-China Trilateral Relations in the Xi Jinping Era” published by Rowman and Littlefield. His global survey report 2023 was published by the NEAR Foundation under the title of “Quo Vadit Mundus: Competing for Order in a Fragmenting World”. 

He regularly contributes articles to the Korea JoongAng Daily, MK Daily and the Korea Times and participates in the CSIS-JoongAng Conference, Jeju Forum, and Korea-Europe forums frequently.