Chun Yungwoo is chairman and founder of The Korean Peninsula Future Forum (KPFF), a think tank with a particular focus on formulating strategies for positive changes in North Korea and an eventual unification of the Korean Peninsula, while running education programs on unification of Korea. He is also a columnist for DongA Ilbo, one of the major newspapers in Korea, as well as a member of the Nuclear Crisis Group of Global Zero.

Chun served as National Security Advisor to President Lee Myung-Bak for the second half of President Lee’s term from October 2010 to February 2013. Before his appointment to the Office of the President, he spent most of his 33 years in public service as a career diplomat. He served in key posts at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including as the Second Vice Foreign Minister (October 2009-October 2010), Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs, Head of the ROK Delegation to the Six-Party Talks (February 2006-April 2008), and Deputy Foreign Minister for Policy Planning and International Organizations (January 2005-April 2006). His senior overseas assignments include Ambassador to the United Kingdom (May 2008-November 2009) and Ambassador/Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN in New York (June2003-January 2005). He also served in France, Morocco, and Austria as a junior diplomat in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

Chun has extensive expertise in the areas of international and national security policies, geopolitics of Northeast Asia and in dealing with North Korea. He has earned international credentials in the field of WMD nonproliferation, serving as Chairman of the Thirteenth Plenary Meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) in May 2003 and as a member of the UN Missile Panel (2003-4). He remains an active participant in international discourse on nonproliferation and disarmament as a member of the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament (APLN) since August 2013 and the Nuclear Crisis Group of Global Zero.

Chun was born in Milyang on January 27, 1952. He graduated from Pusan National University with a B.A. in French in 1977 and received an M.I.A. from the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University in 1994.