Kim, Junggwan was born in 1959 in Busan, Korea. After earning degrees in business administration from Seoul National University, he joined the Ministry of Energy and Resources as deputy director in 1982. He worked at the Ministry for thirty years, where he was responsible for balanced regional industrial development, energy and resources development, and energy industries. He served as Deputy Minister for Energy and Resources from 2009 to 2011, and Vice Minister for Trade and Energy from May to December 2011. Kim, Junggwan then served as Invited Professor at the Department of Energy Resources Engineering at his alma mater from 2012 to 2014. In March 2015, he was named Vice Chairman of the Korea International Trade Association. He received master’s degree in Economics from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1993 and Ph.D. in Economics from Korea Polytechnic University in 2012.