Marc Knapper

Mr. Marc Knapper, a member of the Senior Foreign Service of the U.S. Department of State, served as acting deputy assistant secretary for Korea and Japan since August 2018. Previously, he was chargé d’affaires at U.S. Embassy Seoul from 2017 to 2018 and deputy chief of mission from 2015 to 2016. His earlier assignments include director for India Affairs, director for Japanese Affairs, and multiple postings in Tokyo, Seoul, Hanoi, and Baghdad. Mr. Knapper has twice worked in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, once in 1997 as the State Department representative to the Spent Fuel Team at the Yongbyon nuclear facility, and again in 2000 as part of the advance team for then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s visit to Pyongyang. He is the recipient of a number of awards from the U.S. Department of State, including the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award, which is the State Department’s highest honor. Mr. Knapper also received the Linguist of the Year Award and three Superior Honor Awards. He is a summa cum laude graduate from Princeton University, and also studied at the University of Tokyo, Middlebury College’s intensive Japanese program, the Army War College, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Seminar XXI course. Mr. Knapper speaks Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese.