Washington: The U.S. Senate is set to conduct a confirmation hearing next week for Michelle Steel, a Korean American nominated by U.S. President Donald Trump to serve as ambassador to South Korea. This development was revealed on the Senate website on Thursday.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the website of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Steel's confirmation hearing is scheduled for Wednesday (local time). Last month, Trump nominated Steel, a former two-term Republican lawmaker from California, to fill the position left vacant since former Ambassador Philip Goldberg departed Seoul in January of last year.
Should the nomination process proceed without delays, Steel could assume her post in Seoul as early as June, officials have indicated. If confirmed, Steel will become the second Korean American to serve as the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, following former Ambassador Sung Kim, who held the position from 2011 to 2014. Born in Seoul in 1955 and originally named Park Eun-joo, Steel immigrated to the United States with her family in 1975 and is fluent in Korean.
During Trump's first term, Steel contributed as a member of the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. She was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2020 and won reelection in 2022, before narrowly losing her bid for reelection in 2024.
Following Goldberg's departure, the role of acting ambassador was filled by Joseph Yun, former U.S. special representative for North Korea policy. This was followed by Kevin Kim, a former deputy assistant secretary at the State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and currently by James Heller, the charge d'affaires ad interim at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul.