South Korean ambassador-designate Lee lands in Dhaka

Lee Jang-keun, ambassador-designate of Korea to Bangladesh, has arrived in Dhaka early today, said the Korean embassy in a statement.

He is replacing Ambassador Hu Kang-il, who left Bangladesh on June 17.

Ambassador Lee, a career diplomat, previously served as ambassador and deputy permanent representative of Korea's Permanent Mission to the UN and other international organisations in Geneva, Switzerland, from 2018 to 2020.

He also served as director general for International Organisations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Seoul from 2016 to 2018, and at Korean embassies in Austria, Morocco, and Hungary and at the Permanent Mission to the UN in New York.

Diplomatic ties between the Republic of Korea and the Bangladesh was established in December 1973. Since the opening of the resident embassy of the Republic of Korea in Dhaka in March 1975, seventeen Ambassadors of the Republic of Korea have served in Dhaka so far. Ambassador Lee is the eighteenth.

During the past four decades, the two countries have enjoyed close ties and strengthened cooperative relations in all areas.

The volume of bilateral trade reached around $1.7 billion dollars last year and around 150 Korean companies are now investing in Bangladesh.

Under a special arrangement between the two countries, more than 10,000 Bangladeshis are working in Korea under the Korea's Employment Permit System.