NEAR Chairperson KIM Doo-gyum, mayor of Ulsan Metropolitan City appointed LIM Byung-jin, former consul-general in Shenyang, China, as the sixth NEAR Secretary-General, at the mayor’s office on January 25. He was nominated by Gyeongsangbuk-do Province. The newly appointed secretary-general will start to work at the Secretariat on February 1.

During the meeting after the ceremony, Chairperson Kim said, “Congratulations on the inauguration of New Secretary-General Lim, an expert on Northeast Asia. I would like to ask that you make every effort to prepare for the NEAR General Assembly scheduled to be held this coming October.” In response, Mr. Lim said, “As NEAR is an important platform for exchange and cooperation among local governments in Northeast Asia, I will do my best to expand exchange for joint development and regional peace among the 79 member regional governments of six countries.

New Secretary-General Lim obtained his BA in Sociology from Korea University and MA from the Graduate School of Public Administration at Seoul National University. He is an expert on Northeast Asia and China, and once served as the Minister to Indonesia, and China, respectively. Then, he served as the consul-general in Shenyang, China. Since he completed his duties as the consul-general in Shenyang in December 2020, he has been a visiting professor at Yeungnam University until recently.