Former Norwegian Ambassador Kim Byong-yeon. Photo provided by the family, background removed using ChatGPT [Yonhap]
Former Norwegian Ambassador Kim Byong-yeon. Photo provided by the family, background removed using ChatGPT [Yonhap]

"My father, Kim Byong-yeon, was the guiding light of my life and a man who truly loved the Republic of Korea. He also cherished and cared deeply for the people around him."

Kim Hyun-jong, who served as second deputy chief of the National Security Office at Cheong Wa Dae and as chief trade negotiator at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy during the Moon Jae-in administration, paid tribute Sunday to his late father, former Norwegian Ambassador Kim Byong-yeon, who also served as chairman of The Korea Herald and Naewoe Economy Daily.

According to the family, the former ambassador died Sunday at the age of 95. Born in Suncheon, South Jeolla Province in 1930, he graduated from Suncheon High School and Seoul National University's department of history before joining the Foreign Ministry in 1957. At the time of the 1965 Korea-Japan treaty, he participated in working-level negotiations as a third secretary at the South Korean embassy in Tokyo.

While serving as director of the Asian Affairs Bureau, he led working-level negotiations with China after CAAC Flight 296 made an emergency landing at a US military base in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, in May 1983. The South Korean chief representative at the time was Minister Gong Ro-myung (1932–2026). Despite the absence of formal diplomatic ties, the two sides exchanged memoranda that explicitly named both countries — an outcome widely credited as laying the groundwork for the normalization of South Korea-China relations in 1992.

That October, he accompanied then-President Chun Doo-hwan on a state visit to Burma, now Myanmar. On the day of the Rangoon bombing, a last-minute Burmese request to revise a joint communique sent him and then-presidential diplomatic secretary Hong Soon-young to the Foreign Ministry, sparing them from the attack. He later performed the grim task of identifying the bodies of the 17 aides killed in the North Korean bombing, including Foreign Minister Lee Bum-suk.

He subsequently served as ambassador to Uruguay and Norway. After retiring from the diplomatic service, he served as chairman of The Korea Herald and Naewoe Economy Daily, and as the inaugural chairman of the Imjin Jeongyu Northeast Asia Peace Foundation.

Kim Hyun-jong served as head of the international trade advisory team for Lee Jae Myung during his presidential campaign and is frequently mentioned as a candidate for national security adviser. Under President Roh Moo-hyun, he served as chief trade negotiator at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade — a minister-level post — where he designed and concluded simultaneous free trade agreement negotiations with 45 countries, including the Korea-US FTA. Under the Moon administration, he served as the inaugural chief trade negotiator at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, aggressively concluding the renegotiation of the Korea-US FTA with the first Donald Trump administration and securing an exemption from US tariffs on South Korean steel.

He subsequently served as second deputy chief of the National Security Office at Cheong Wa Dae, where he is credited with negotiating the complete termination of the 42-year-old Korea-US missile guidelines through talks with both the Trump and Joe Biden administrations, restoring South Korea's sovereignty over missiles and space launch vehicles. The achievement directly enabled private defense companies to freely develop and possess solid-fuel space launch vehicles.


oskymoon@heraldcorp.com