SEOUL, April 14 (AJP) -Korean-American former California congresswoman Michelle Steel (Park Eunjoo in Korean) has been nominated as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to South Korea, the White House said Monday as President Donald Trump finally moves to fill the post that has remained vacant throughout much of his second term.
The nomination, which requires Senate confirmation, was submitted to Congress as Washington seeks to restore a formal diplomatic channel in Seoul after more than a year without a Senate-approved envoy.
The ambassadorship has been vacant since the departure of Philip Goldberg, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden. Senior State Department official Kevin Kim has been serving as chargé d’affaires since October, following an earlier interim role by Joseph Yun.
Steel, a Korean American Republican, served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing California districts covering Orange County from 2021 to 2025. She narrowly lost her reelection bid in 2024 to Democrat Derek Tran.
Born in Seoul in 1955, Steel emigrated to the United States in her early twenties after spending part of her youth in Japan. Her political career began in California, where she served on the State Board of Equalization and later as an Orange County supervisor before entering Congress. She was also part of the House Republican leadership’s whip team under Steve Scalise.
Her nomination had been widely anticipated since the early days of Trump’s second term, with Republican leaders including Mike Johnson and Kevin McCarthy reportedly backing her as a Korea-savvy figure within the party.
If confirmed, Steel would become the second Korean American to serve as U.S. ambassador to South Korea after Sung Kim, and one of the few political appointees with both linguistic and cultural fluency in Korea.
Her appointment is expected to restore high-level diplomatic bandwidth between Washington and Seoul, where the absence of a permanent envoy had raised concerns about Korea’s standing in U.S. foreign policy priorities. Observers say Steel’s direct political ties to Trump, combined with her Korean heritage and language skills, could position her as a more effective conduit between the two governments compared with career diplomats.
The nomination also opens the possibility of a historic alignment, with both Seoul and Washington potentially represented by female ambassadors in each other’s capitals for the first time.
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