Kim Hyun-jong is a former minister for trade in Roh Moo-hyun

Roh Moo-hyun

Roh Moo-hyun GOM GCB was the 16th President of South Korea .Roh's pre-presidential political career was focused on human rights advocacy for student activists in South Korea. His electoral career later expanded to a focus on overcoming regionalism in South Korean politics, culminating in his...

 administration, and is currently the 21st UN ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the Republic of Korea.

From May 2003, the very beginning of Roh administration, as the deputy minister for trade and later the minister for trade, he was one of the most central figures in Roh administration's trade policy for more than 4 years. In particular, he initiated numerous free trade agreement(FTA) plans or talks with including Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

(CEPA), Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, MERCOSUR

Mercosur

Mercosur or Mercosul is an economic and political agreement among Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Founded in 1991 by the Treaty of Asunción, which was later amended and updated by the 1994 Treaty of Ouro Preto. Its purpose is to promote free trade and the fluid movement of goods, people,...

, GCC

Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf

The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf , also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council , is a political and economic union of the Arab states bordering the Persian Gulf and constituting the Arabian Peninsula, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates...

, Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, EFTA

EFTA

EFTA may refer to:* European Family Therapy Association, an NGO.* European Fair Trade Association, an association of eleven Fair Trade importers in nine European countries....

, ASEAN, and USA. The FTAs with Singapore, EFTA, ASEAN, and USA had been signed before he moved to UN. These 4 blocks and Chile(the first nation with which South Korean signed FTA) compose 25.78% of all South Korean trade(according to data in 2006).

Publications

• The Trend of Block Economy and NAFTA (1995)
• When are Government Loans Subsidies? Hanbo Steel and the Application of the WTO Subsidies Agreement (1998)

External links

• Links to CV's of South Korean ambassadors