SEOUL (UCAN): South Korea appointed Oh Hyun-Joo as its first woman ambassador to the Holy See, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on January 4, the Catholic Peace Broadcasting Corporation.
Oh, was deputy ambassador to the United Nations.
The ministry said that Oh’s expertise in areas of multilateral diplomacy and international development cooperation as a member of South Korea’s permanent mission to the UN would be an asset in her new role.
“Ambassador Oh is a Catholic and a female diplomat who can manage bilateral issues in celebration of the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties with the Vatican this year,” a ministry official said, according to a report by Yonhap news agency.
Oh is the 17th South Korean ambassador to the Holy See. She was born in 1969 and joined the Korean foreign service in 1994.
She was baptised a Catholic in 2003 at St. Joseph Korean Parish, in the Archdiocese of Newark, the US, while she was serving as the second secretary to the United Nations.
Oh has served as consul to Chengdu, counsellor to Geneva, special assistant to the president of the United Nations Human Rights Council, and director of development cooperation.
South Korea’s first ambassador to the Vatican was Shin Hyun-Joon, who was appointed in 1974. The diplomatic relations and exchanges played key roles in the history of both nations.
The first apostolic delegate to South Korea, Bishop Patrick James Byrne played a key role in the Maryknoll mission in Northern Korea in 1923.
