Sung Kim By Andy Lim
Who is he?
Sung Kim recently became the new Special Representative for North Korea Policy and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Korea and Japan on November 2014.
Previously he served as the Ambassador of the United States to the Republic of Korea from November 2011 to August of 2014, where he became the first Korean-American ever to serve in that position. At the end of his tenure in the ROK, he received the Order of Diplomatic Service Merit Medal (Gwanghwa Medal) from President Park Geun-hye and an honorary citizenship from Seoul in recognition of his services to improving bilateral ties between the U.S. and the ROK.
A career foreign service officer, he was appointed the Special Envoy for the Six-Party Talks in July 2008 with the rank of Ambassador. During his career, he has served as the head of the Department of State’s Office of Korean Affairs (2006-2008), the Political-Military Unit Chief at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul (2002-2006), a Political Officer in Tokyo (1999-2002), as well as assignments in Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong. His assignments in Washington included serving as a desk officer in the Office of Chinese Affairs, and as a Staff Assistant in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs. Before his diplomatic career, he worked as a public prosecutor in the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office.
Originally from Seoul, South Korea, Ambassador Kim moved to Los Angeles when he was young. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, a J.D. from Loyola University Law School and an L.L.M. from the London School of Economics.
Why has he been in the news?
Ambassador Kim is making his first trip to Asia since assuming his new position, accompanied by Special Envoy for Six-Party Talks Sydney Seiler and by Director for Korea at the National Security Council Allison Hooker to discuss North Korea policy. He was in South Korea from December 4-8, where he met with Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs Hwang Joon-kook. After that he went to Japan from December 8-10, where he met with Director General for Asian and Oceanian Affairs Junichi Ihara, and proceeded to China for his last stop from the December 10- 12, where he met with Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs Wu Dawei, before finally returning to Washington on December 12.
What can we expect from him?
Ambassador Kim is the most experienced foreign service professional on North Korea policy in the United States government today. His return to this difficult issue after three years as ambassador provides the administration with substantial institutional memory of past agreements as it chart to bring a path forward.
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