Suh Hoon (; born 1954) is a South Korean government official who served as the Director of National Security Office from 2020 to 2022 and previously as the director of the National Intelligence Service from 2017 to 2020.

Overview

In 1980, he started public service at the Ministry of National Security Planning with 17 public affairs and worked for National Intelligence Service for 28 years and 3 months until his retirement in March 2008. He was the third deputy of the

Roh Moo-hyun Roh Moo-hyun (, ; 1 September 1946 – 23 May 2009) was a South Korean politician and lawyer who served as the ninth president of South Korea from 2003 to 2008. Roh's pre-presidential political career was focused on human rights advocacy for ...

administration after going through the Strategic Chief of the National Intelligence Service. In 2017, he was appointed as 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 ...

's first director of National Intelligence Service. In July 2020 he was designated as Moon's second director of National Security Office replacing Chung Eui-yong. This makes Suh as one of four people who continue to serve President Moon as cabinet minister or ministerial-level government official from the beginning of Moon's presidency in 2017 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 ...

, Kim Sang-jo and Kang Kyung-wha as of December 2020.

Education

* BA in education,

Seoul National University Seoul National University (SNU; ) is a public university, public research university in Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the SKY (universities), SKY universities and a part of the Flagship Korean National Universities. The university's main c ...

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

Graduate School of International Politics *

Dongguk University Dongguk University () is a private university in Jung District, Seoul, South Korea. A top-tier university acknowledged locally in Korea. It is one of the few Buddhist-affiliated universities in the world, and is a member of the International Asso ...

Graduate School of North Korean Studies

Career

* 1996: Representative of Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization * February 2004: Chief of information security office of National Security Council * December 2004: Chief Strategy Officer of the National Intelligence Service * November 2006: The third deputy director of the National Intelligence Service Visiting Professor, Department of North Korean Studies, Ewha Womans University * June 2017: Director of the 13th National Intelligence Service of South Korea * July 2020: Director of National Security Office

Political activity

* In March 2018, Suh visited

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 ...

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

for discussing the required steps to denuclearization of North Korea * Suh briefed Japanese Prime Minister

Shinzo Abe Shinzo Abe (21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020. ...

and foreign minister the same month after his Pyongyang visit. * Suh Hoon played a critical role in historical

April 2018 inter-Korean summit The April 2018 inter-Korean summit took place on 27 April 2018 on the South Korean side of the Joint Security Area, between Moon Jae-in, President of South Korea, and Kim Jong Un, Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea and Supreme Leader of ...

. He also helped establish two previous first and second inter-Korean summits in 2000 and 2007, is seen as the country's prime expert on the subject with North Korea. He is known as the South Korean who met with the previous North Korean leader

Kim Jong-il Kim Jong Il (born Yuri Kim; 16 February 1941 or 1942 – 17 December 2011) was a North Korean politician who was the second supreme leader of North Korea from the death of his father Kim Il Sung in 1994 until his death in 2011, when he was ...

the most. * In April 2018, Suh Hoon visited North Korea as a South Korean envoy for organising the historic inter-Korean summit. He entered North Korea with a high-level delegation of South Korean officials.

Arrest

In December 2022 Suh was arrested in South Korea on charges of

tampering with evidence Tampering with evidence, or evidence tampering, is an act in which a person alters, conceals, falsifies, or destroys evidence with the intent to interfere with an investigation (usually) by a law-enforcement, governmental, or regulatory authority. ...

that was related to the killing of South Korean Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries official by North Korean espionage agents near the

Northern Limit Line The Northern Limit Line or North Limit Line (NLL) – 북방한계선 (in ROK) – is a disputed maritime demarcation line in the Yellow (West) Sea between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the north, and the Republic of Kore ...

in September 2020. In February 2025, Suh was sentenced to a suspended prison term of ten months by the Seoul Central District Court for abuse of power involving the forced repatriation of two North Korean fishermen who had killed 16 of their colleagues in the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it ...

in 2019.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Suh, Hoon 1954 births Living people Seoul National University alumni Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies alumni Dongguk University alumni Scholars of North Korea Directors of the National Intelligence Service (South Korea)