Mr. LEE Hee-Sup commenced his diplomatic career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Republic of Korea, in 1987. His career has spanned various positions, including serving as First Secretary at the Korean Embassy in Japan (1995), Counsellor at the Korean Embassy in Bangladesh (1998), and a Visiting Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in the UK (2004). He has held significant roles such as Assistant Secretary at the National Security Council (2005), Director of Northeast Asia Division at MOFAT (2006), Minister-Counsellor in Australia (2007), and Minister at the Korean Embassy in Indonesia (2011). He has also served in strategic positions such as Deputy Secretary for Foreign Affairs at the Office of the President, ROK (2012), and later held Deputy Secretary for Policy Coordination at the Office of National Security (2013). In 2014, he was reassigned as a Minister at the Korean Embassy to Japan, and later took the helm as Director-General for Global Education and Cooperation at National Human Resources Development Institute, Ministry of Personnel Management (2019).
Prior to his current role as Secretary-General of the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat, he served as Consul-General at the Korean Consulate-General in Fukuoka, Japan (2020). Mr. LEE completed his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and International Studies at Yonsei University, Seoul, in 1985.