"Antonio Guterres announced today the appointment of Izumi Nakamitsu of Japan as the next Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Office for Disarmament Affairs. She will succeed Kim Won-soo of the Republic of Korea, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for his commitment and dedicated service to the Organization," the press release issued on Wednesday said.
The newly appointed UN high representative for disarmament also worked as a professor of international relations at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo and was a member of former Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s UN Reform team.
Nakamitsu was born in 1963. She is married and has two daughters.
The Japanese official has replaced South Korea's Kim Won-soo, who served at the position of UN high representative for disarmament since 2015.