Lee Appoints China Expert Kim Heung-kyu to Head Korea's Diplomatic Academy
President Lee Jae Myung has named Kim Heung-kyu, a prominent scholar of China and US-China relations, as chancellor of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy. The move signals a push to sharpen Seoul's strategic thinking on Beijing as competition between Washington and China intensifies.
President Lee Jae Myung has named Kim Heung-kyu, a prominent scholar of China and US-China relations, as chancellor of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy. The move signals a push to sharpen Seoul's strategic thinking on Beijing as competition between Washington and China intensifies.
President Lee Jae Myung has appointed Kim Heung-kyu, one of South Korea's foremost experts on China and US-China relations, as chancellor of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, the presidential office announced Friday.
Kim currently serves as a professor of political science and diplomacy at Ajou University, where he founded and directs the US-China Policy Institute. He previously taught at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, the academy's predecessor institution, giving him firsthand familiarity with the organization he will now lead.
Senior presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung described Kim as a scholar-practitioner whose combination of academic research and policy advising experience makes him well-suited to guide the academy. According to Kang, Kim is expected to elevate the institution into a top-tier center for research and diplomat training suited to the AI era, while reinforcing its role in supporting a pragmatic, national interest-driven foreign policy.
Kim is also known for founding the Plaza Project, a nonprofit registered with the National Assembly that fosters bipartisan discussion on South Korea's security, economic and diplomatic challenges, as well as its approach to North Korea. His background positions him as a bridge-builder capable of drawing together academic, policy and political perspectives on China strategy.
The appointment comes as Seoul seeks to navigate an increasingly complex balancing act between Washington and Beijing, with the Lee administration signaling that it wants stronger institutional expertise on China embedded within the country's diplomatic training pipeline.
In a separate announcement the same day, Lee named Kim Tai-yoo, an engineering professor at Seoul National University, as vice chair of the Regulatory Rationalization Committee. Kim Tai-yoo, a former presidential adviser on science and technology under President Roh Moo-hyun, is expected to lead regulatory reform efforts tied to AI, semiconductors and robotics. He replaces Lee Byung-tae, who resigned earlier in the week following controversy over remarks widely seen as disparaging the 1980 Gwangju Democratization Movement.
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