International Day of UN Peacekeepers: Captain Jinha Kim, Republic of Korea

UNMISS International Day of UN Peacekeepers South Sudan South Korea Republic of Korea peacekeepers peacekeeping

Captain Jinha Kim, a 28-year-old UNMISS peacekeeper from the Republic of Korea, was a combat pilot in his home country and says that serving for peace in South Sudan is his biggest learning experience yet. Photo by Nektarios Markogiannis/UNMISS.

27 May 2021

International Day of UN Peacekeepers: Captain Jinha Kim, Republic of Korea

Priyanka Chowdhury

28-year-old Jinha Kim from South Korea has learned a few additional skills upon his deployment to UNMISS. A combat pilot in his home country, Captain Kim currently handles data coming in from all corners of the world’s largest United Nations Peacekeeping mission, ensuring timely analysis for smooth day-to-day operations.

What does a typical workday at UNMISS look like for you?

I am one of four Administrative Officers working in the UNMISS Force Headquarters in Juba. As the largest peacekeeping mission in the world, UNMISS has more than 14,000 troops from different Troop Contributing Countries. My job is to parse together data coming in from all troops and prepare timely reports for stakeholders within the mission and the UN Headquarters in New York for further planning and analysis. It’s a detail-oriented role which doesn’t really require face time with others; however, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it wasn’t business as usual and the mission had to adapt, change the way it performed what would earlier be considered routine tasks. This meant that I and my colleagues had to rally to provide accurate information that reflected the changed circumstances accurately.

What do you like most about your job?

Once I joined UNMISS, my administrative skills have widened considerably. I majored in aerospace engineering and my prior military service was as a combat pilot. But as a peacekeeper, I’m doing a job that I didn’t originally have much knowledge about. I’ve got to learn new things in a challenging, multicultural environment in what must be one of the most difficult years in recent human history. It’s been an unforgettable experience.

What’s one thing you have learned since starting your mission?

I think I’m still learning. Before I became a peacekeeper, I used to consider myself quite an open-minded person. But after joining UNMISS and working with colleagues from different nationalities, I have been struck by how every person reacts differently to the same situation. I can confidently say that being a peacekeeper has taught me patience, perseverance and that each day at UNMISS brings new challenges and new ways to overcome them.