Cho Tae-yong (; born 29 August 1956) is a South Korean career diplomat and politician with over three decades of experience who served as South Korea's National Security Advisor from March to December 2023. On January 16, 2024, he was appointed Director of the National Intelligence Service of South Korea. Cho has extensive experience in a range of high-level diplomatic assignments dealing with the United States and North Korea. In November 2016, he represented South Korea in talks with

Michael Flynn Michael Thomas Flynn (born 24 December 1958) is a retired United States Army lieutenant general who served as the 24th U.S. national security advisor for the first 22 days of the first Trump administration. He resigned in light of reports tha ...

and other members of then-U.S. President-elect

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

's foreign policy team on North Korea. He and then-U.S. Deputy Secretary of State

Antony Blinken Antony John Blinken (born April 16, 1962) is an American lawyer and diplomat who served as the 71st United States secretary of state from 2021 to 2025. He previously served as Deputy National Security Advisor, deputy national security advisor ...

held five rounds of U.S.-South Korea strategic consultations on North Korea between 2015 and 2017. As South Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister between 2014 and 2015, he represented South Korea in regular U.S.-South Korea-Japan trilateral talks with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State

Tony Blinken Antony John Blinken (born April 16, 1962) is an American lawyer and diplomat who served as the 71st United States secretary of state from 2021 to 2025. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secr ...

and Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama. He is not to be confused with Cho Tae-yul, a similarly named South Korean career diplomat who was South Korea's Second Vice Foreign Minister of Affairs until 2016 and currently serves as the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations.

Early life

Cho was born in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

in 1956, and received his bachelor's degree in political science from

Seoul National University Seoul National University (SNU; ) is a public university, public research university in Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the SKY (universities), SKY universities and a part of the Flagship Korean National Universities. The university's main c ...

Career

Among various other positions, Cho was previously South Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2014 to 2015 and South Korea's Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs from 2013 to 2014. Cho also previously served as the South Korean Ambassador to Australia from 2011 to 2013, Ambassador to Ireland from 2008 to 2009, and Director General of the North American Affairs Bureau of the South Korean Foreign Ministry from 2006 to 2007. Cho has been working on North Korean affairs since 2004. He was Director General of the South Korean foreign ministry's Task Force on North Korea, and deputy head of the South Korean delegation to the

six-party talks The six-party talks aimed to find a peaceful resolution to the security concerns as a result of the North Korean nuclear weapons program. There was a series of meetings with six participating states in Beijing: * China * Japan * North Korea ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

in 2004. He was named South Korea's special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs in 2013, and then became Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cho, Tae-Yong 1956 births Living people People from Seoul Seoul National University alumni South Korean diplomats Ambassadors of South Korea to Ireland Ambassadors of South Korea to Australia Ambassadors of South Korea to the United States Directors of the National Intelligence Service (South Korea) Pyongyang Cho clan

Early life

Career

See also

References