Lee Hee-sup

Lee Hee-sup (Korean: 이희섭) is a South Korean diplomat and the Secretary-General of the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat between China, Japan, and Korea, which is an international organization established with a vision to promote Lasting Peace, Common Prosperity, and Shared Culture among the three countries.

Career

Lee earned a B.A. in Political Science and International Studies from Yonsei University in February 1985. After passing the High Diplomatic Service Examination in April 1987, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) in June 1987.

His career includes serving as First Secretary at the Korean Embassy in Japan (1995), Counsellor at the Korean Embassy in Bangladesh (1998), and Visiting Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in the UK (2004). He held key positions such as Assistant Secretary at the National Security Council (2005) and the Office of the President (2006), Director of the Northeast Asia Division I at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (2006), and Minister-Counsellor at the Korean Embassy in Australia (2007).

He continued to hold significant roles, including Minister at the Korean Embassies in Indonesia (2011) and Japan (2014), Deputy Secretary for Foreign Affairs (2012) and Policy Coordination (2013) at the Office of the President, Director-General for Global Education and Cooperation at the National Human Resources Development Institute (2019), and Consul-General in Fukuoka, Japan (2020). In September 2023, he was appointed Secretary-General of the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat.