Yoonsok Lee is currently a Senior Research Fellow of the International Finance Research Division and Vice-Director of the Research Center for North Korea Finance at the Korea Institute of Finance. The Institute is the most prominent institution in Korea that is specialized in financial research. It provides policy reports to, but not limited to, the Office of the President, Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Financial Services Commission, Korea Financial Intelligence Unit and various other financial authorities. Dr. Lee has contributed to various columns in the media and is a distinguished expert in the area of international finance, North Korea finance and issues in international money laundering and terrorist financing.

Dr. Lee worked as a portfolio manager in the Reserves Management Office at the Bank of Korea from 1995 to 1999. During the summer of 1997, Dr. Lee worked as a summer associate at Goldman Sachs, NY. He was also a research assistant at the NBER during 2004~2005. He served as committee member for Active Global Fixed Income Search Committee at Korea Investment Corporation (KIC) in 2007. He was also a committee member of the Fund Investment Oversight and Training Committee (FOTC) during 2009. He also served as a member of the Self Regulatory Review Committee at the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and is currently a non-permanent member of the Exchange Rate Risk Management Committee at the Korea Land and Housing Corporation. He was also a visiting scholar of School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University (2012~2013).

His research field covers various aspects of the financial arena including the foreign exchange markets, international finance, North Korea finance, banking analysis and anti-money laundering issues. Yoonsok earned his B.A. in Economics from Seoul National University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He can be reached at yslee@kif.re.kr