Jeong Se-hyun

Jeong Se-hyun (Korean: 정세현; Hanja: 丁世鉉; born 7 May 1945) is a South Korean politician who served as an Unification Minister under two consecutive presidents from 2002 to 2004. He spent more than two decades at the Ministry of Unification which he first joined as a researcher on communist countries at then-Board of National Unification in 1977. In 2002 he was appointed as the head of the Ministry and assumed the post until June 2004 serving two consecutive Presidents, Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun. He was also credited with boosting inter-Korean cooperative projects including Kaesong Industrial Region, a landmark site of Inter-Korean cooperation. In 2019 Jeong was appointed the Executive Vice-Chair of National Unification Advisory Council led by the President Moon Jae-in, the third president Jeong serves and third liberal president of the country. He was credited with helping to create the predecessor of the Council, Presidential Advisory Council on Peaceful Unification Policy, back in 1981. He also worked at Korean think tanks - now-Sejong Institute and Korea Institute for National Unification - as their ranking member. In addition, he was the visiting scholar to Kyung Hee University and Myongji University as well as the Endowed-Chair Professor of Ewha Womans University and Kyungnam University.