Former Korean Foreign Minister, Ro-Myung Gong was a chair professor in the Division of International Studies of Dongseo University in Busan, Korea, since 2007. He was also the advisor of the Korea-Japan Forum after serving as Chairman from 2003 to 2012. He was born on February 25, 1932. He is a graduate of the Law College, Seoul National University, and studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He entered the Republic of Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1958 and served at various overseas diplomatic missions of Korea, including in Washington DC, Tokyo, Canberra, and Cairo. He was the Republic of Korea's Ambassador to Brazil from 1983 to 1986, Consul-General in New York (1986-89), Ambassador to the then-Soviet (1990-92), Director of the Institute of Foreign Affairs and Security(IFANS) (1992-93), Ambassador to Japan (1993-94), and became Minister of Foreign Affairs from December 1994 to November 1996. After retiring from government, he served as a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on Unification in 1997. In 1992, he was also the representative of the 6th, 7th, and 8th rounds of high-level inter-Korean talks and chairman of South Korea for the South-North Joint Nuclear Control Commission. He was chairman of the 2010 PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games Bid Committee (1992-93), chair professor of Dongguk University, Seoul (1997-2004) and of Hallym University in Chuncheon (2004-07), chairman of the Sejong Foundation/Sejong Institute (2008-11) and chairman of the East Asia Foundation (2010-2019), currently serving as Executive Advisor of the foundation.