{"id":63665,"date":"2026-06-24T17:32:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T17:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/63665\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T17:32:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T17:32:05","slug":"ex-rep-michelle-steel-becomes-1st-korean-american-woman-us-ambassador-to-seoul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/63665\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Rep. Michelle Steel becomes 1st Korean American woman US ambassador to Seoul"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Source<\/a>]<\/p>\n

The Senate confirmed former Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.) as the next U.S. ambassador to South Korea on June 17, putting a Korean American woman in the post for the first time.<\/p>\n

How it happened<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump nominated Steel, 70, in April to fill the ambassadorship, which had stood vacant since Philip Goldberg retired from the post in January 2025. James Heller, a career member of the U.S. Senior Foreign Service, has been filling in<\/a> as charge d\u2019affaires ad interim in the meantime. The Senate vote, 55-39, broke mostly along party lines, though Democrats Tim Kaine of Virginia and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire backed her while California\u2019s Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff opposed her.<\/p>\n

Steel\u2019s own biography mirrors the alliance she will now represent. After her parents fled North Korea, she spent her childhood split between South Korea and Japan and moved to the U.S. at 19. With a bachelor’s degree from Pepperdine and an MBA from USC, she built a career in California politics, including stints on the Orange County Board of Supervisors and the State Board of Equalization, followed by two terms in Congress. She now becomes only the second Korean American to serve as ambassador to Seoul, following<\/a> Sung Kim\u2019s tenure from 2011 to 2014.<\/p>\n

What people are saying<\/p>\n

Steel\u2019s confirmation has drawn mixed reactions. \u201cI can\u2019t wait to see all you\u2019ll accomplish to strengthen our ironclad U.S.-ROK alliance,\u201d Rep. Young Kim, a fellow Korean American Republican, wrote<\/a> on social media. The National Asian\/Pacific Islander American Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurship struck a similar note, crediting Steel with \u201ca strong commitment to public service, economic growth and strengthening the U.S.-Korea relations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trending on NextShark: New initiative aims to get more AAPIs into the boardroom<\/a><\/p>\n

However, the Senate\u2019s only three Asian American members \u2014 Tammy Duckworth, Mazie Hirono and Andy Kim \u2014 accused Steel in a joint statement<\/a> of \u201ca disturbing history of using racially-based attacks and tropes\u201d against AANHPI leaders, including veterans. Their statement echoed a 2022 episode in which Asian American groups protested Steel\u2019s red-baiting of her Taiwanese American opponent, Navy reservist Jay Chen.<\/p>\n

In Seoul, opposition lawmaker Kim Joon-hyeong, floor leader of the Rebuilding Korea Party, urged caution<\/a> over South Korea\u2019s decision to extend its own diplomatic consent, known as agr\u00e9ment, to Steel.<\/p>\n

What this means<\/p>\n

The new ambassador inherits a U.S.-South Korea relationship anchored in security commitments and an unfinished trade deal. A $350 billion investment pact finalized last November, covering shipbuilding and semiconductor manufacturing, cut U.S. tariffs on South Korean goods from 25% to 15%, part of a broader effort both governments describe as \u201cmodernizing\u201d the alliance. Steel\u2019s record as a China and North Korea hawk, including House efforts backing Taiwan and opposing Beijing\u2019s human rights abuses, also suggests a firmer posture than the current Seoul government\u2019s preference for dialogue.<\/p>\n

Trending on NextShark: Chicago man charged with hate crime for burning a cross<\/a><\/p>\n

Her own campaign history may prove just as consequential as her policy positions. During a close and contentious 2024 reelection bid, she ran fliers linking opponent Derek Tran to communism<\/a>, pairing his image with Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s hammer-and-sickle symbol, and citing his cryptocurrency ties to China and his TikTok use. Those tactics complicate her new portfolio, which requires calibrated engagement on China-related flashpoints from Taiwan to North Korea.<\/p>\n

Steel is expected to take up the investment pledge and the trade discrimination complaints once she\u2019s sworn in.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trending on NextShark: Ex-Rep. Michelle Steel becomes 1st Korean American woman US ambassador to Seoul<\/a><\/p>\n

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Want to keep up to date on Asian American News? Download the NextShark App today!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Source] The Senate confirmed former Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.) as the next U.S. ambassador to South Korea on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35482,35480,3150,35479,35481,171,9779,18391,34,35478,2642,33,35484,35483,35477,35485],"class_list":["post-63665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea","tag-adam-schiff","tag-alex-padilla","tag-asian-american","tag-james-heller","tag-jeanne-shaheen","tag-korean","tag-korean-american","tag-michelle-steel","tag-north-korea","tag-philip-goldberg","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-south-korea","tag-tammy-duckworth","tag-tim-kaine","tag-u-s-senior-foreign-service","tag-young-kim"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}