Dr. Byoung Gug Choung has served as the Chair of Arts Council Korea (ARKO) since 2023. He was formerly Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism and a longtime member of the National Assembly (2000 to 2020).
During his term as minister in 2011, he helped the city of Pyeongchang to win its bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. In 2010, he served as Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Culture, Sports, Tourism, Broadcasting, and Communications of the National Assembly.
Choung holds a doctoral degree in Political Science from Sungkyunkwan University and a master’s degree in Public Administration from Yonsei University. More recently, he was a Senior Researcher of the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University (2021-2023).