Jieun Choi is a South Korean economist and politician.

She is currently an advisor to Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae Myeong and serves as his campaign’s spokesperson on international affairs. She also advises the Korean government on economic policy issues as a member of the Presidential Commission on Policy Planning.

Until joining Governor Lee’s campaign, she was the international spokesperson for the Democratic Party – a brand new position for a Souht Korean political party – and served in a number of Democratic Party committees on political and economic reforms, including the Special Committee on Semi-conductor Industry Promotion and the Korean Peninsula Special Task Force. Jieun Choi entered electoral politics in time for the 2020 general election. Sine then, she has been representing the DP in one of the constituencies in Busan.

Before entering politics, she worked with policy makers from 30+ countries in Asia, Europe, Africa and Middle East.

Over her 17-year career Dr. Choi worked as a senior economist at the World Bank covering China and several economies in Europe and Central Asia, and prior to that, she worked on the poorest countries in Africa as the first Korean staff member of the African Development Bank. Based in Tunisia, she worked on ICT infrastructure and technology policies with Samsung.

She holds a PhD from Oxford and a Master’s Degree (MPA/ID) from Harvard Kennedy School, and has published articles and books on industrial policies, digitalization, globalization, and inclusion. She also teaches at Seoul National University as a Visiting Professor. She is a native Korean speaker, and fluent in English, Mandarin Chinese, and conversational in French.

Current Positions

• Spokesperson and Advisor for Lee Jae Myung’s Presidential Campaign

• Vice Chairman of the Policy Committee of the ruling Democratic Party of the Republic of Korea.

• A Member of the Presidential Commission on Policy Planning

• Visitng Professor at Seoul National University's Graduate School of International Studies