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Sung Kim, the U.S. special envoy to the six-party talks, is expected to succeed Kathleen Stephens as the next U.S. ambassador to Korea, according to news reports.
Yonhap News Agency, quoting an anonymous source in Washington, said that the U.S. government tapped the 51-year-old Korean-American to replace Kathleen Stephens, incumbent ambassador to Korea. Stephens assumed her post in October 2008. Past U.S. ambassadors to Korea have usually served three to four years.
If confirmed, Kim will be the first U.S. ambassador to Korea with a Korean background.
As of Sunday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it could not confirm his nomination, citing diplomatic protocol as the reason. A liaison public-relations officer at the U.S. Embassy in Korea also said the embassy was not informed of anything on Kim’s nomination from Washington.
One Korean diplomat told The Korea Times that an official announcement usually comes after the nominee is approved by the government in the recipient country.
A prosecutor-turned-diplomat, Kim has been working as a special envoy to the six-party talks aimed at dismantling North Korea’s nuclear program since July 2008. One month prior to that, he, then the head of the Korean office at the State Department, flew to Yongbyon in North Korea to see the demolition of a cooling tower at its main nuclear site. He has visited the North more than 10 times in official capacities.
The career diplomat served as chief of the political-military affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul in 2003, and also worked as a political officer in Tokyo. Prior to that, he served in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Hong Kong.
Diplomatic circles in Korea and Washington seem to welcome him as a new ambassador to Korea.
Born in 1960, Kim and his family emigrated to the United States in the 1970s, after his father left public service. Kim went on to the University of Pennsylvania and Loyola Law School and served as a prosecutor before becoming a diplomat.
In Korea, news of his appointment raised hopes for future communications between Seoul and Washington over the North’s nuclear issue.
"Kim hasn't taken part in actual six-party discussions, but he has played an important role in maintaining Seoul-Washington cooperation on North Korea," a South Korean government official was quoted as saying by Yonhap. "The two allies could become even closer to each other in the future.”
The multilateral talks, involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, were last held in 2008.
The nominee will have to go through a confirmation hearing at the U.S. Senate.
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