Ex-Rep. Michelle Steel becomes 1st Korean American woman US ambassador to Seoul

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.

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 as charge d’affaires 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’s Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff opposed her.

Steel’s 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 Sung Kim’s tenure from 2011 to 2014.

Steel’s confirmation has drawn mixed reactions. “I can’t wait to see all you’ll accomplish to strengthen our ironclad U.S.-ROK alliance,” Rep. Young Kim, a fellow Korean American Republican, wrote on social media. The National Asian/Pacific Islander American Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurship struck a similar note, crediting Steel with “a strong commitment to public service, economic growth and strengthening the U.S.-Korea relations.”

However, the Senate’s only three Asian American members — Tammy Duckworth, Mazie Hirono and Andy Kim — accused Steel in a joint statement of “a disturbing history of using racially-based attacks and tropes” against AANHPI leaders, including veterans. Their statement echoed a 2022 episode in which Asian American groups protested Steel’s red-baiting of her Taiwanese American opponent, Navy reservist Jay Chen.

In Seoul, opposition lawmaker Kim Joon-hyeong, floor leader of the Rebuilding Korea Party, urged caution over South Korea’s decision to extend its own diplomatic consent, known as agrément, to Steel.

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 “modernizing” the alliance. Steel’s record as a China and North Korea hawk, including House efforts backing Taiwan and opposing Beijing’s human rights abuses, also suggests a firmer posture than the current Seoul government’s preference for dialogue.

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, pairing his image with Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party’s 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.

Steel is expected to take up the investment pledge and the trade discrimination complaints once she’s sworn in.