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Spymaster | South Korea
Lee Jong-seok, the academic driving South Korea's new security shift

Published on 10.10.2025 at 04:00 GMT Reading time 3 minutes

The director of South Korea's National Intelligence Service, Lee Jong-seok. © Yonhap News Agency/MaxPPP

The new spy chief's appointment signals more than a mere change of leadership. The former unification minister is the embodiment of President Lee Jae-myung's new foreign policy goals to keep channels open with China and North Korea while maintaining a balance with the United States.

On 4 June 2025, Lee Jong-seok, the former unification minister and a researcher by training, was appointed as the new director of South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) (IO, 14/06/24). The choice of an academic for this position historically held by diplomats, military personnel or intelligence officers (IO, 01/03/24 and 09/09/22), reflects

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Spymaster | South Korea
Lee Jong-seok, the academic driving South Korea's new security shift