The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on the 15th that attorney Cha Ji-hoon of Yoon & Yang LLC has been appointed as the first ambassador to the United Nations under the Lee Jae-myung administration.
Cha, the new ambassador, passed the 28th bar exam (Judicial Research and Training Institute class 18) and is a bar exam and training institute classmate of President Lee.
From 2009 to 2017, Cha served as legal adviser to Seongnam City, and in 2020, when Lee was governor of Gyeonggi Province, he joined the defense team in an election law violation case and secured a remand for retrial with an acquittal rationale.
Because the UN ambassadorship does not require an agrément (prior consent for diplomatic envoys), he is expected to receive the letter of appointment soon and take up the post in New York, United States, where the United Nations headquarters is located.
Cha graduated from Suncheon High School in South Jeolla and Seoul National University's law department, and earned an LL.M. from American University. He has been active in Lawyers for a Democratic Society (Minbyun) and served as a member of the National Human Rights Commission's international human rights advisory panel and as a legal adviser on international investment disputes for the Ministry of Justice.