Ex-envoy Lee to chair Asan Institute

Former ambassador to Russia Lee In-ho has been elected the new chairwoman of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, the body said on Jan. 31.

Born in 1936 in Seoul, Lee began her college studies at Seoul National University, but completed her undergraduate degree in history at Wellesley College in 1960, earned a master’s degree from Radcliffe College and a Ph.D. in history from Harvard. She taught history at Barnard, Columbia, and Rutgers before returning to Korea in 1972. 

Lee continued her teaching career at Korea University and then at Seoul National University, and laid the foundation for Russian and Soviet studies in Korea by launching the Korean Association for Russian Studies and founding the Russian Studies Institute at Seoul National University.

In 1996, she was named Korea’s first woman ambassador, serving for two years in Finland, and then another two years in Russia.

She also served as the president of the Korea Foundation in Seoul.

(swchun@heraldcorp.com)