Marc Knapper is Deputy Assistant Secretary Marc Knapper, before assuming this position, was in Seoul as Charge d’Affairs from 2017 to 2018 and Deputy Chief of Mission from 2015 to 2016. Earlier assignments include Director for India Affairs, Director for Japanese Affairs, and multiple postings in Tokyo, Seoul, Hanoi, and Baghdad. The Deputy Assistant has twice worked in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea: in 1997 as the State Department representative to the Spent Fuel Team at the Yongbyon nuclear facility and in 2000 as a member of the advance team for then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s visit to Pyongyang. He is a recipient of the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award, the nation’s highest diplomatic honor. He is a summa cum laude graduate of Princeton University.