Kim named envoy to EU, Belgium

The Seoul government on Wednesday appointed Kim Chang-beom, a former presidential protocol secretary, as new ambassador to the European Union and Belgium.

Kim, 52, began his career at the Foreign Ministry in 1981 and has served in posts involving in security policy and diplomatic relations with North America, Japan and Indonesia.

In 2007, he became the first director general of the Korean Peninsular Peace Regime Bureau under the Office of Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs, which is in charge of the six-party talks aimed at denuclearizing North Korea.

(heeshin@heraldcorp.com)