Joseph Yun

Session 1 - "Highlights from 140 Years of Bilateral Relations between Korea and the US"

Ambassador Joseph Yun is a Senior Advisor with the U.S. Institute of Peace, an independent and non-partisan federal institute working on peace and reconciliation issues throughout the globe. Ambassador Yun is also concurrently U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Compact Negotiations, appointed in March 2022 by President Biden to negotiate amendments to the Compact of Free Association (COFA), the agreement governing the relationship between the United States and the Freely Associated States (FAS) of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau. A 33-year career diplomat, his previous senior diplomatic assignments include U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy (2016-2018), U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia (2013-2016), and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the State Department Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs (2011-2013).  His earlier Foreign Service overseas assignments were in Hong Kong, Medan, Paris, Bangkok, and Seoul.  Before joining the Foreign Service in 1985, Yun was a senior economist for Data Resources, Inc., in Lexington, Massachusetts. He holds a Master of Philosophy from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Wales.