Ex-diplomat Wi Sung-lac brings pragmatic touch as Lee's national security adviser

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Ex-diplomat Wi Sung-lac brings pragmatic touch as Lee's national security adviser

Published: 13 Jun. 2025, 07:00 Updated: 09 Jul. 2025, 12:36

SARAH KIM
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

President Lee Jae-myung, center, announces appointments including former Korean Ambassador to Russia Wi Sung-lac, far right, as his national security adviser, in a press conference at the presidential office in Yongsan, central Seoul, on June 4. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

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President Lee Jae-myung has a busy several weeks ahead in diplomacy as he makes his first phone calls with world leaders and attends his first multilateral summit next week, turning the spotlight onto the pragmatic strategist who is leading his foreign affairs and security approach.

In his first round of appointments last week, Lee named Wi Sung-lac, a retired veteran diplomat, as his national security adviser. Seoul’s next steps are especially important because they come after a six-month leadership vacuum here at a time of rapidly changing international dynamics following the election of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Wi, 71, a former ambassador to Russia, was a name that often came up during then-Democratic Party (DP) candidate Lee’s presidential campaign, as a core member of his foreign policy team and the person framing his diplomatic strategy.

He has often been cited as a key expert on the North Korean nuclear issue as he served as Seoul’s chief negotiator in the now-defunct six-party talks on Pyongyang’s denuclearization.

The diplomat-turned-lawmaker was often mentioned as Lee’s potential pick for foreign minister during the campaign. However, Wi was ultimately named Lee’s national security adviser on June 4, as soon as the new president took office following last week’s snap election.

Wi, known as a principled strategist, has been a proponent of pursuing a practical foreign policy focused on national interests based on a strong South Korea-U.S. alliance while maintaining stable ties with regional major powers like China and Russia.

He is known to be one of the key architects of Lee's "pragmatic diplomacy" strategy during the presidential campaign.

Likewise, Lee in his inaugural address on June 4 promised a “practical diplomacy centered on national interest” and vowed to strengthen the Korea-U.S. alliance, trilateral cooperation with Japan and approach relations with neighboring countries “from the perspective of the national interest and pragmatism."

Wi Sung-lac, then a Democratic Party lawmaker, speaks at a press conference at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Oct. 28, 2024. [NEWS1]

Diplomat-turned-lawmaker

Wi, who served over 35 years as a diplomat, is a well-known expert in U.S. affairs, the North Korean nuclear issue and Russia relations.

A native of Jangheung County in South Jeolla, Wi graduated from Seoul National University with a major in international relations.

He later studied Russian at the Defense Language Institute (DLI), a Pentagon-run educational and research institution in Monterey, California.

Wi passed South Korea’s foreign service examination in 1979 and served in various positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs over the years, including as deputy chief of mission at the Korean Embassy in Washington, director-general of the North American affairs bureau and special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs.

During his career, Wi served across both liberal and conservative administrations. During the liberal Roh Moo-hyun administration, he served as the policy coordinator for the National Security Council (NSC), and under the conservative Lee Myung-bak government, he served as special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs.

Wi is the author of several books, including "A Proposal to Upgrade Korean Diplomacy" and "The Russia Report.”

During the 2022 presidential election, Wi led a pragmatic diplomacy committee for then-candidate Lee’s campaign.

Wi became a DP proportional lawmaker in May 2024. It was a time when the DP-controlled National Assembly, led by then chief Lee Jae-myung, oftentimes clashed with the policies of then President Yoon Suk Yeol, a hard-liner on North Korea policies, who put as top priority relations with the United States and Japan.

Earlier this year, Wi was named the chairman of the DP’s relaunched Northeast Asia special committee, first established in 2018 to promote peace and cooperation between countries in the Northeast Asia region. At the time, the DP backed the liberal Moon Jae-in administration’s Korean Peninsula peace initiative.

Role of security adviser

On June 4, Lee tapped Wi as his national security adviser, or the director of the National Security Office (NSO), making him the de facto chief of the president’s foreign and security affairs team. This includes shaping diplomatic strategy toward neighboring countries and North Korea.

While a shortlist of foreign affairs and defense experts have been mentioned as candidates to form the rest of Lee’s diplomacy and security line, appointments are coming along slowly amid a slew of other urgent tasks because of the lack of a transition period following the election.

Lee appointed his first and second vice foreign ministers earlier this week, but has yet to tap a new foreign minister ahead of the G7 summit, likely for continuity’s sake. There are concerns about the delay in the subsequent appointments of the first, second and third deputy directors of the NSO, the team to support Wi.

The national security adviser is supported by three deputies. The position of third deputy national security adviser was created in early 2024 to oversee economic security issues. The Yoon administration saw four security advisers, leading to speculation of inner discord due to the frequent reshuffling.

Thus, communication with the president and the security team will be vital for forming an effective diplomatic approach going forward. Park Yoon-joo, the new first vice foreign minister, reportedly worked with Wi at the Foreign Ministry.

Wi is described by peers to be calm and cautious, if not a bit scholarly and dry. However, he is known to be bold when needed.

In an interview with the Monthly JoongAng, an affiliate of the Korea JoongAng Daily, in April 2024, Wi said, “Diplomacy is done behind the scenes. When the government speaks, the people will think it is true.”

He continued, “Our diplomacy has failed to match our national power for quite some time. South Korean diplomacy is mired in the ‘five swamps’: self-centered perspectives, dependence on domestic politics, ideology and partisanship, populism and amateurism.”

Thus, it will be seen if he can break free from such pitfalls as he helms the country’s foreign affairs and diplomacy team.

President Lee Jae-myung attends his inauguration ceremony at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on June 4. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Approach to the four major powers

As a longtime adviser to Lee in the areas of foreign policy and security, Wi has taken a diplomatic approach that emphasizes placing sufficient weight on relations with North Korea, China and Russia, along with the United States and Japan.

Regarding the Yoon administration’s foreign policy direction, Wi told the Monthly JoongAng last year, “Strengthening ties with the United States and improving relations with Japan is commendable,” but noted that little was done to alleviate the obvious “backlash” that followed. He said ties with China, Russia and North Korea had hit "rock bottom.”

He said such a path would make South Korea’s key diplomatic agendas, such as the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, establishing peace and pursuing unification, become extremely difficult and diplomacy in this direction “ultimately harms our national interest.”

While Wi acknowledged that Seoul-Moscow relations are at their worst as a result of Russia’s war on Ukraine, he cautioned that the partnership between North Korea, China and Russia has yet to solidify.

As a lawmaker, Wi has emphasized that the matter of South Korea providing lethal weapons to Ukraine must be considered carefully, warning against completely cutting ties with Russia.

Wi has also noted that it is not in South Korea’s national interest to take an emotional approach to China, especially after the fallout over the deployment of the U.S.-led Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) antimissile system in Korea.

However, Wi as a lawmaker took a firm stance on China’s expanding influence in the Yellow Sea, after Beijing installed steel structures in the Provisional Maritime Zone (PMZ), an area in the Yellow Sea where the exclusive economic zones of South Korea and China overlap. He called it a “grave security concern” and warned in a parliamentary session in March that the next administration will need to take the issue more seriously.

Wi said in an interview with Japanese media outlet Jiji Press on May 27 that the Yoon administration’s third-party compensation solution for forced labor victims “should be supplemented if possible,” which raised some concern in Japan.

However, Lee, despite concerns in Japan that he may reverse advances in bilateral ties between Seoul and Tokyo, indicated he intends to pursue a consistent policy with the previous Yoon government regarding compensation for Korean victims of wartime forced labor during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule over Korea.

The Yoon government in March 2023 introduced a plan to compensate the victims through a Korea-funded foundation, which led to thawed bilateral ties between Seoul and Tokyo.

In a press conference on June 4, Lee said that “consistency of policy is especially important in relations between countries," noting this is an “issue of trust between countries."

On North Korea relations

President Lee could try to make a breakthrough in inter-Korean relations, which have been frozen for the past several years, within the road map of progress in North Korea-U.S. relations. Wi and former Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok, who has been tapped as director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), are expected to play the top roles in such a vision.

On his North Korea policy, Lee said in his inaugural address that he will "open a channel of communication with North Korea and establish peace on the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and cooperation” while maintaining the South Korea-U.S. alliance.

On Wednesday, Seoul suspended its anti-Pyongyang broadcasts, resumed last year along the inter-Korean border, under the direction of Lee, seen as a step toward de-escalation of border tensions.

When the denuclearization talks were at a standstill following escalated South-North tensions over the Cheonan sinking and Yeonpyeong shelling in 2010, Wi, as chief nuclear negotiator, proposed a three-step approach which involved: holding North Korea-U.S. dialogue, resuming six-party talks and then coordinating with neighboring countries. While the two Koreas held denuclearization talks in July 2011, the six-party talks were not revived.

Wi later served as ambassador to Russia from 2011 to 2015 and was tasked with handling major issues such as the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

In turn, Wi has personally taken a strong stance against South Korea’s nuclear armament.

He has emphasized a cautious approach to South Korean nuclear arms, as it doesn’t take into account the economic aftermath and international isolation, and instead stresses peace on the Korean Peninsula and solutions within multilateral diplomacy.

A view of the Pomeroy Kananaskis Mountain Lodge where the G7 Leaders meeting will take in Kananaskis, Alberta in Canada on June 2. [AP/YONHAP]

Global player

President Lee’s first test on the global diplomatic stage comes at the G7, or Group of 7, summit in Canada next week.

Wi, in an opinion piece published by the Korea JoongAng Daily on June 30, 2021, called then President Moon Jae-in’s invitation to the G7 as an event that “was a recognition of South Korea’s international reputation and acceptance as a partner in their discussions of global issues.” It came at a time when the United States was eyeing the expansion of the G7 with South Korea as a permanent member.

“But increased responsibility and burdens would inevitably follow if it were to become a member,” Wi wrote. “We must ask ourselves if South Korea is really ready to take on the extra burden.”

BY SARAH KIM [[email protected]]