By Sunny Lee

Harold Hongju Koh, President Obama's nominee for legal adviser to the State Department, was confirmed by the Senate, ending months of opposition from conservative Republicans.

The Yale Law School Dean on Thursday passed by a vote of 62-35, according to his supporters on Facebook.

The legal advisory role is the highest U.S. government post, held by Korean Americans, comparable to assistant secretary.

"The U.S. Senate voted to confirm my nomination as Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State. Starting tomorrow, I will assume that position, and begin a public service leave from my Yale professorship," Koh told his Facebook supporters, who have been campaigning for Koh.

Some Republican lawmakers opposed Koh's nomination, saying his support of the practice of using tenets of international law and foreign legal precedent to inform the deliberative process of judicial decision making in the United States. His opponents said that would put the American legal system "subject to" international norms.

Koh was born in 1954, in Boston, Mass.. Koh's father, diplomat Koh Kwang-lim, earned political asylum in the United States when South Korea was under military dictatorship.

Koh previously served as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor in the Clinton Administration.

sunny.lee@koreatimes.co.kr