[Exclusive] Michelle Steel Granted South Korean Agrément... Official U.S. Ambassador Appointed After 18 Months

The South Korean government has granted an agrément (prior consent by the host country for a diplomatic envoy) to Michelle Steel, the nominee for U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, as confirmed on June 18. She will become the first ambassador to Seoul under the Trump Administration's second term, filling the post after a vacancy of one year and six months.

According to diplomatic sources on this day, the agrément process for Ms. Steel has already been completed. After the remaining procedures in the United States, she is expected to take office as early as this month, or at the latest, early next month. Previously, on June 17 (local time), the U.S. Senate held a plenary session and approved Ms. Steel's nomination. Once the letter of appointment is presented and the oath of office is completed at the White House by U.S. President Donald Trump, she is expected to assume her post in South Korea.

The position of U.S. Ambassador to South Korea has remained vacant for one year and six months since former Ambassador Philip Goldberg completed his term and departed in January last year. In the meantime, Joseph Yun and Kevin Kim served as acting ambassadors for several months each, and currently, James Heller is serving as acting ambassador.

When Ms. Steel assumes her post, she will become the second Korean American ambassador to South Korea, following former Ambassador Sung Kim, who took office in 2011. She is the daughter of parents who fled North Korea during the Korean War and her Korean name is Park Eun-Joo. After serving as a California Supervisor (chief administrative officer), she was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2021 to 2025. Some observers have expressed concerns about her strong hardline stance toward China and her pressure-based approach to North Korean issues, seeing this as potentially overly conservative.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.