Kang Kyung-wha (; born April 7, 1955) is a South Korean diplomat and politician who was the first female Foreign Minister of South Korea under President

Moon Jae-in Moon Jae-in (, ; born January 24, 1953) is a South Korean politician and former lawyer who served as the 12th president of South Korea from 2017 to 2022. Before his presidency, he served as the senior secretary for civil affairs and the Chief ...

from 2017-21 as well as the first woman nominated for and appointed to the position. She is also the first Korean woman to hold a high-level position in the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

. Previously, Kang was the first non-

exam An examination (exam or evaluation) or test is an educational assessment intended to measure a test-taker's knowledge, skill, aptitude, physical fitness, or classification in many other topics (e.g., beliefs). A test may be administered verba ...

-taker to become a director-general at the ministry. She is the first South Korean foreign minister to join the official South Korean delegation for the inter-Korean summit as well as to visit

Pyongyang Pyongyang () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is sometimes labeled as the "Capital of the Revolution" (). Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. Accordi ...

. Kang now serves as the president and CEO of the

Asia Society The Asia Society is a 501(c)(3) organization that focuses on educating the world about Asia. It has several centers in the United States (Manhattan, Washington, D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle) and around the world (Hong Ko ...

Early life and education

Kang was born in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, South Korea. Her father, born in

, North Korea, was a famous announcer at South Korea's

Korean Broadcasting System The Korean Broadcasting System (KBS; ) is the public broadcasting, national broadcaster of South Korea. Founded in 1927, it is one of the leading South Korean television and radio broadcasters under the government of South Korea. The KBS ope ...

as well as a member of its second board of directors. Her family moved to

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

following her father's career at

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is an international broadcasting network funded by the federal government of the United States that by law has editorial independence from the government. It is the largest and oldest of the American internation ...

in 1964 and came back to Seoul after two years. Kang attended Ewha Girls' High School in Seoul. She graduated from

Yonsei University Yonsei University () is a Private university, private Christian university, Christian research university located in Seoul, South Korea. Yonsei is one of the three most prestigious universities in the country, part of a group referred to as SK ...

with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Diplomacy. She obtained an M.A. in mass communication and a Ph.D. with a dissertation on intercultural communication from the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...

, United States.

Career

Early career

Early in her career, Kang worked for the

as a producer of English Service Division of Radio Korea. As an associate professor, she lectured at

Cleveland State University Cleveland State University (CSU) is a public research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1964 and opened for classes in 1965 after acquiring the entirety of Fenn College, a private school that had been in oper ...

in Ohio and Sejong University in Seoul. Between and after her career in academia, she assisted several speakers of the

National Assembly of South Korea The National Assembly of the Republic of Korea () is the unicameral national legislature of South Korea. Elections to the National Assembly are held every four years. The latest legislative elections were held on 10 April 2024. The current Na ...

on global issues in human rights, advancement of women and parliamentary diplomacy as presidential secretary for international relations and an interpreter. She was also active in women's organizations in Korea, serving as the spokeswoman of the Korean Women's NGO Committee for the Beijing Conference in 1995, member of the International Relations Committee of the Korean National Council of Women, and director of Korean Institute for Women and Politics.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

In 1998 Kang joined the Korean Foreign Service, without ever having passed the Foreign Service Exam, as the acting Senior Research Officer of Foreign Ministry's Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security. In 1999 she was specially employed as Senior Advisor and Principal Speechwriter to the Foreign Minister and Principal Interpreter to the President. While working as the president's interpreter for three years, she gained then-President Kim's confidence due to her interpretation during his phone call with U.S. president Clinton. From September 2001 to July 2005, Kang was Minister-Counselor and later Minister at Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the

. During that time, she chaired the

Commission on the Status of Women The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW or UNCSW) is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), one of the United Nations System#Six principal organs, principal organs of the United Nations. CSW has bee ...

for its 48th and 49th session. Before and after working at the Permanent Mission, she worked as Deputy Director-General and Director General for the International Organisations of the Foreign Ministry. Later, she was appointed as Ambassador-at-Large for Global Affairs of the Ministry.

United Nations

Kang held key roles in the

under three consecutive Secretaries-General, from Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon to the current officeholder, Antonio Guterres. In September 2006,

Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder a ...

appointed her as Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, equivalent to Assistant Secretary-General, after seeing her potential when she chaired the UN commission on women. She was appointed by

Ban Ki-moon Ban Ki-moon (born 13 June 1944) is a South Korean politician and diplomat who served as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations between 2007 and 2016. Prior to his appointment as secretary-general, Ban was the South Korean minister ...

as Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator and Assistant Secretary-General for the

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is a United Nations (UN) body established in December 1991 by the General Assembly to strengthen the international response to complex emergencies and natural disaster ...

in March 2013. In October 2016, she was appointed by then-Secretary-General-elect,

António Guterres António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres (born 30 April 1949) is a Portuguese politician and diplomat who is serving as the ninth and current secretary-general of the United Nations since 2017. A member of the Socialist Party (Portugal), ...

as Chief of the Secretary-General-designate's Transition Team. Later in February 2017, she continued to work with Secretary-General Guterres as his Senior Advisor on Policy, equivalent to

Under-Secretary-General An under-secretary-general of the United Nations (USG) is a senior official within the United Nations System, normally appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the secretary-general for a renewable term of four years. Under-s ...

, before resigning for the foreign minister of South Korea.

Cabinet

After an announcement of her nomination by the

Blue House Cheong Wa Dae (), also known as the Blue House in English, is a public park that was the former Office of the President of South Korea, executive office and residence of the president of South Korea. Located in Seoul's Jongno District, directl ...

in May 2017, Kang faced hard opposition from the opposition parties before and during her nomination hearing at the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

due to allegations, such as

address fraud An address is a collection of information, presented in a mostly fixed format, used to give the location of a building, apartment, or other structure or a plot of land, generally using political boundaries and street names as references, along ...

and the nationality of her oldest daughter. Opposition was partly composed of claims that she lacks experience dealing directly with global powers - the U.S. in particular. During her hearing, she asked for understanding given that she was unable to manage her children in detail as a working parent, did not share finances with her husband to support her parents as their oldest child, and lived abroad for a long time. With public statements of support from a trade union of the Ministry, Japanese military sex slaves, or widely known as "

comfort women Comfort women were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces in occupied countries and territories before and during World War II. The term ''comfort women'' is a translation of the Japanese , a euphemism ...

", Korea NGO Council for Overseas Development Cooperation, and her eleven predecessors, respectively, along with the public support of 60% and more, President Moon appointed her as his first foreign minister, a post that requires a nomination hearing but not the expressed approval from the legislature, in June 2017. With her and other female cabinet members, President Moon was able to keep his election promise to fill over 30% of his cabinet with women. During her talks with

Hansung University Hansung University () is a private university in Seongbuk District, Seoul, South Korea. It was founded on December 21, 1972. The Hansung University is located in Seongbuk District and Jongno District, Seoul. Timeline 1945–1989 *Septem ...

students, she revealed that she had never met President Moon in person before her conferment ceremony at the Blue House. She is the third head of the ministry to attend the high-level segment of the regular sessions of the

Human Rights Council The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is a United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world. The Council has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis. The ...

after her predecessors

and Yun Byung-se. As of 2019 she is the first Korean foreign minister to make keynote speech at every regular session of the Council during their tenure. Because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

has imposed an entry ban on South Koreans and foreign tourists who stayed in South Korea in the past 14 days. Kang described Israel's response as "excessive". As of December 2020, Kang is the only cabinet minister - and one of four at a ministerial level along with

Hong Nam-ki Hong Nam-ki (; born 29 July 1960) is a South Korean politician who served as Minister of Economy and Finance and Deputy Prime Minister of South Korea from 2018 to 2022 under President Moon Jae-in. He is the longest serving Minister of Econom ...

, Suh Hoon and Kim Sang-jo - to continue to serve President Moon from the beginning of his presidency in 2017. On January 20, 2021, President Moon nominated his first director of National Security Office, Chung Eui-yong, to replace Kang.

Post-cabinet

In February 2021, Kang became the last member of President Moon's first cabinet formed in 2017 to be replaced after more than three and a half years. A month later, she joined Park Young-sun's campaign in Seoul mayoral by-election as its chair of international cooperation committee. In August 2021, Kang was appointed a distinguished professor emeritus at the Graduate School of International Studies at

Ewha Womans University Ewha Womans University () is a private women's research university in Seoul, South Korea. It was originally founded as Ewha Haktang on May 31, 1886, by missionary Mary F. Scranton. Currently, Ewha Womans University is one of the world's largest f ...

, the first university she visited as the country's foreign minister in 2018. In October 2021, Kang announced her candidacy for the next Secretary General of the

International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is one of the firs ...

. In the final vote, she came in fourth; the position eventually went to Houngbo.

Affiliations

, President (since April 2024) *

International Crisis Group The International Crisis Group (ICG; also known as the Crisis Group) is a global non-profit, non-governmental organisation founded in 1995. It is a think tank, used by policymakers and academics, conducting research and analysis on global crises. ...

(ICG), Board of Trustees (since 2023)

Personal life

She is married to Lee Yill-byung, an emeritus professor of computer science at

, and has three children: two daughters and a son. In 2000, when Kang moved to Seoul from the US, she illegally forged her residency to get her daughter to attend a prestigious high school in Seoul. In 2017 she admitted to this

, but the statute of limitation for such a misdemeanor had already expired.

Awards

*Special Award at the 11th Annual Korea Women Leaders Awards by the Young Women's Christian Association of Korea (2013) * Order of Service Merit by the government of South Korea (2006) *Woman of the Year Award by the Korean National Council of Women (2006)

References

External links

Minister of Foreign Affairs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kang, Kyung-wha 1955 births Living people South Korean women diplomats Female foreign ministers United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights officials Yonsei University alumni University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni Ministers of foreign affairs of South Korea Sincheon Kang clan Cleveland State University faculty Academic staff of Sejong University Politicians from Seoul South Korean officials of the United Nations Women government ministers of South Korea Academic staff of Ewha Womans University