Pak Gil-yon is a veteran diplomat with almost 40 years of experience.

In 1969, he began his diplomatic career as a consul in the North Korean Embassy in Burma. In 1982, he took over the foreign affairs bureau of the State Administration Council. From 1985 to 1991, he led the North Korean delegation to the United Nations and was named ambassador after Pyongyang joined the world body. He received the prestigious Order of Kim Il-sung in 1992 but lost his job as envoy to the United Nations in 1996.

In 1994, Pak began to play a key role in his government’s relations with the United States by notifying Washington of Pyongyang’s bolt from the International Atomic Energy Agency. During 1995 meetings on a nonproliferation treaty, he criticized the presiding chairman for bringing up the North’s nuclear program.

He has also served as deputy chief of the council’s foreign affairs bureau and as vice foreign minister twice. In 2001, he returned to New York as ambassador to the United Nations.