The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on the 12th that it appointed Baek Tae-woong (63), a professor at the University of Hawaii law school, as ambassador to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) mission. The ambassador to the OECD, who serves as an economic specialist diplomat, is typically a senior official from an economic ministry or an international economics expert. It is unusual that Baek, who is not an expert in the economic field, was named.
Baek served as chairperson of the Committee for Realization of International Standards, Judicial Justice under the central election committee of the Democratic Party of Korea during last year's presidential election. Baek, who also served as president of the General Student Council of the Seoul National University Student Militia, formed the Socialist Workers' League (Sanomaeng) in the 1980s with poet Park Nohae and others, and in 1992 was arrested and indicted on charges of violating the National Security Act and the following year was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Baek was released in 1999 through a special pardon. He later went to the United States to study, earned master's and doctoral degrees in international human rights law, and has taught at the University of Hawaii law school since 2011.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced ambassadorial appointments that day. Cho Young-joon, Gangwon Province's ambassador for international relations, was appointed ambassador to Nicaragua; Son Hyuk-sang, dean of the Graduate School of Public Policy at Kyunghee University, to Paraguay; Lee Won-jae, a career-track professor at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, to Turkmenistan; Boo Suk-jong, former chief of naval operations, to Türkiye; and Park Cheol-min, former ambassador to Hungary, to Hungary.