Korean American diplomat Kevin Kim, who served as chargé d'affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Korea, has been nominated as ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
According to the White House website on the 2nd, U.S. President Donald Trump nominated former chargé d'affaires Kevin Kim as the U.S. representative (ambassador) to the U.S. Mission to ASEAN. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Kim will take up the post as ambassador.
Kim took office as chargé d'affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Korea in October last year and coordinated President Trump's visit to Korea for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit and the U.S.-Korea summit.
He then returned to the State Department roughly 70 days after assuming the chargé d'affaires post in Seoul and has served as an aide to Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker.
Kim earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Johns Hopkins University and is known to have been involved in U.S.-North Korea summit diplomacy while serving as chief of staff to then–Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun from 2018 to 2020 during Trump's first term.