▲ This file photo, released by AFP, shows Rep. Michelle Park Steel (R-CA). (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

Trump-S Korea ambassador

Trump nominates former Rep. Michelle Park Steel as ambassador to S. Korea

By Song Sang-ho

WASHINGTON, April 13 (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Donald Trump has nominated a former Korean-American congresswoman as the United States' top envoy to South Korea, a presidential nomination document showed Monday.

Trump tapped Michelle Park Steel, a former two-term Republican lawmaker from California, as the U.S. ambassador to Seoul, as Seoul and Washington face a series of joint tasks, including "modernizing" the bilateral alliance and cooperating on regional and global challenges, including North Korean threats and the Middle East conflict.

The ambassador post in Seoul has been left vacant since former Ambassador Philip Goldberg left Seoul in January last year.

During Trump's first term, she served as part of the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. She was first elected to the House in 2020 and then reelected in 2022, but she lost to her Democratic rival in last year's general election.

During her time in Congress, she was active in pushing for legislation to address the issue of Korean Americans who have been separated from their relatives in North Korea in the wake of the 1950-53 Korean War.

She previously served as a member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors and the California State Board of Equalization. Born in South Korea, she is known to have grown up in Korea, Japan and the U.S.

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