As foreign minister, Park presided over South Korea's controversial support for Israel and Azerbaijan during the Israel–Hamas War and 2023 Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno–Karabakh respectively, as both countries were accused of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

He was selected for the seventh term of state-funded international studies in 1983 and earned a master's degree in public administration at Harvard Kennedy School in 1985 and a Ph.D. in political science at Oxford University in 1993.

Since 2002, he has served as the 16th and 17th lawmakers of Jongno-gu, Seoul, and served as the chairman of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee, taking the lead in ratifying the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement and passing the North Korean Human Rights Act.

In 2008, he visited the U.S. as the head of the Korea-U.S. Congressional Diplomatic Association and met Joe Biden, then chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In 2020, he moved to Gangnam-gu B, Seoul, and was elected to the 21st National Assembly (South Korea).