[단독]Ambassador Seong Kim of’North Korea Tong’ returns as a key member of the US State Department

-The US Ambassador to Indonesia, Sung Kim, a North Korean expert and “Korean Tong,” returns as a key member of the Foreign Affairs and Security Team of the Jo Biden administration.

On the 21st (local time), the newly updated Bureau of EAP homepage by the State Department along with the inauguration of the Biden administration, the name of Ambassador Sung Kim is listed as a’senior official’.

The specific titles of other high-ranking officials in the State Department appear to have not yet been disclosed, with the nominee of Secretary of State Tony Blincoln awaiting final approval by the Senate. As soon as Blincoln’s appointment is confirmed, it is highly likely that Ambassador Sung Kim will be appointed as the assistant secretary of the East Asia Pacific, responsible for East Asia and Thailand. The Assistant Secretary of the East Asia-Pacific is the highest position in the State Department in charge of working in China, Korea and Japan.

Ambassador Sung Kim was appointed as the chief representative of the six-party talks and special envoy to North Korea in 2008 after serving as the head of the Korean department of the State Department in 2006. He was also a key practitioner who attended the bombing site of the cooling tower of North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear facility in June of that year as a representative of the United States, watching the site and reviewing related data. Kurt Campbell, who was appointed by the Biden administration as the’Asian Tzar’ of the White House, is also known to have a strong credibility. He was nominated as the first Korean ambassador to Korea in 2011. After handing over to Ambassador Mark Leepert in 2014, he returned as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Thailand. Later, he moved to the Philippines ambassador, but he has been deeply involved in North Korean affairs. Representatively, in June 2018, President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had a preliminary working-level negotiation with North Korea ahead of the first Singapore-North Korea summit meeting. He continued to negotiate several times in Singapore with North Korea’s Foreign Minister Choi Sun-hee and Panmunjom, and until the end, he quarreled over “complete, verifiable and irreversible nuclear abolition (CVID).” Ambassador Sung-Kim told Washington on the 22nd (local time) Upon arrival, it was reported that he would attend an internal meeting of the State Department.

Washington = Correspondent Lee Jung-eun [email protected]Go to reporter page>