Pak Kil-yon

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Pak Kil-yon
Chosŏn'gŭl:	박길연
Hanja:	朴吉淵
McCune-Reischauer:	Pak Kil-yŏn
Revised Romanization:	Bak Gil-yeon

Pak Kil-yon (b. 1943/Juche-32, Chagang) is a North Korean diplomat. He serves as Permanent Representative to the United Nations since 2001, and also as ambassador to Canada since 2002. His rhetoric is similar to that of Kim Jong-il, his head of state, including calls to prevent Japan from obtaining a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.

Pak is a graduate of Pyongyang University of International Affairs. He has served in the North Korean diplomatic corps since 1969, when he was Consul to the embassy in Myanmar. He subsequently served in Singapore, and then domestically as the director-general of the American Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Thereafter he was named chief representative for the North Korean UN mission in 1985. He subsequently served as ambassador to countries including Colombia and Cambodia, before taking his present post.

Pak has been a delegate to the 8th, 9th and 11th sessions of the Supreme People's Assembly. He was awarded the Order of Kim Il-sung in 1992.

On May 13, 2005, Pak Kil-yon met with Joseph DeTrani, a special envoy for the United States, to discuss a North Korean return to "six-party talks" on North Korean nuclear proliferation. This meeting was the first between US and North Korean officials in six months.