1912 Illinoisan Professor Morse Tan Confirmed Ambassador at Large for Global Criminal Justice by Senate Foreign Relations Committee through a bipartisan agreement

Illinoisan Professor Morse Tan Confirmed Ambassador at Large for Global Criminal Justice by Senate Foreign Relations Committee through a bipartisan agreement

Illinoisan Professor Morse Tan Confirmed Ambassador at Large for Global Criminal Justice by Senate Foreign Relations Committee through a bipartisan agreement


Professor Morse Tan, now Goodwill Ambassador at Large for International Criminal Justice Northern Illinois University College of Law. Courtesy of Northern Illinois University College of Law
Submitted by Matt Tarek
Updated12/12/2019 3:23 PM


On April 5, 2019, President Donald Trump announced that he will nominate Morse H. Tan Ambassador at Large for Global Criminal Justice, a key post in his administration, as hearings were later held on Oct. 6, as he was confirmed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Nov. 20 through a bipartisan agreement, as Tan gave lectures on North Korea at the state department on January 2017.

Tan attended Wheaton College and after going back for undergraduate studies, he went Northwestern University where he got his Juris Doctorate.

Originally from South Korea, he immigrated to the United States when he was very young, as Tan speaks Korean, English, and Spanish fluently, and has some grasp of Latin, Portuguese, French, and Chinese, and has traveled most of the United States and over 30 countries.

With an expertise in international law, constitutional law, bioethics, legal philosophy, and human rights, especially in regards to North Korea, he did tremendous legal work in the past and taught at five different law schools, has written numerous articles for different publications, and conducted plenty of presentations while having many media interviews.

A supporter of bringing Kim Jung-Eun and the other top leaders of North Korea to the International Criminal Court, a bipartisan issue, Professor Tan breaks the record for number of law review articles on North Korea and the Korean-American Society named him Korean-American of the Year as Tan published North Korea, International Law, and Duel Crisis in 2015.
For more information, visit www.niu.edu/law/about/directory/tan.shtml.