Kang Kyung-wha, Seoul FM during Trump's 1st term, appointed ambassador to US
Kang Kyung-wha, who served as South Korean foreign minister during US President Donald Trump's first term, was officially appointed Wednesday as Seoul's top envoy to the United States.
Kang, the first foreign minister under the Moon Jae-in government, served the post for almost four years beginning in 2017, working closely with Washington when Trump held talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in 2018 and 2019.
Her appointment marks the first ambassadorship to Washington under President Lee Jae Myung’s administration, according to the Foreign Ministry in Seoul.
Before becoming foreign minister, Kang held senior UN posts — including senior policy adviser to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and deputy high commissioner for human rights — making her the highest-ranking Korean woman in an international organization.
Most recently, she served as president and chief executive of the Asia Society in New York.
Sending the former foreign minister to Washington reflects Seoul’s consideration of her experience dealing with the Trump administration and her expertise in multilateral diplomacy, as prospects for renewed nuclear dialogue with Pyongyang emerge.
Her immediate tasks include coordinating Trump’s planned visit to South Korea for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, later this month and arranging a bilateral summit between Trump and Lee upon the occasion. She also faces negotiations on tariffs, alliance modernization and revisions to the nuclear cooperation agreement.
Kang graduated from Yonsei University before earning a doctorate in communications from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She previously served as international secretary to the National Assembly speaker and as a professor at Sejong University before joining the Foreign Ministry in 1999.
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