Australia’s New Ambassador to Korea

Peter Rowe (56) was inaugurated as Australian ambassador to Republic of Korea in January, his third stint in Korea.

Rowe, who is proficient in Korean, worked at the Australian embassy in Korea as a second secretary in the 1980s and was Australia’s deputy ambassador from 1995 to 1998.

He has first-hand experience of various upheavals in Korea, such as Korea’s democratization movement in the 1980s and the 1997 Asian financial crisis. He has a keen interest in Korea.

Rowe plans to pursue Australian diplomatic goals by getting closer to Koreans. Korea is one of Australia’s most important trading partners and every year, more Koreans are going to the country to study. Korea ranked second in terms of the number of student visas issued by the Australian embassy (14,000) after China, which was issued the largest number of student visas (28,000) in 2004.

Rowe graduated from the University of Sydney and got a job after graduation with Australia’s department of foreign affairs. He worked in China during his first stint abroad and he is good at speaking Chinese. He who has also worked in Indonesia and Taiwan as well as in Korea and China is an expert on Asian issues.

Jung-Ahn Kim credo@donga.com