Joseph Yun, a former special envoy on North Korea and veteran diplomat, will assume the role of interim acting US ambassador to South Korea following Ambassador Philip Goldberg's departure from Seoul on Tuesday.
“Yes, that’s our intention. He will become charge d’affaires in a few days,” Goldberg said during a farewell press briefing at Incheon Airport when asked if Yun would serve as the acting US ambassador to South Korea.
Goldberg concluded his 36-year diplomatic career in the US Foreign Service as he stepped down from his role as ambassador to South Korea, a position he had held since July 2022.
With just two weeks remaining before the Trump administration's inauguration, the Biden administration has appointed Yun to the role amid political turmoil in South Korea following President Yoon Suk Yeol's declaration of martial law on Dec. 3.
This move departs from the usual practice of appointing the deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Seoul, currently Joy Sakurai, to serve as acting ambassador during an ambassadorial vacancy.
The authority to appoint the next US ambassador rests with the incoming Trump administration. Unlike ambassadors, whose appointments require Senate confirmation -- a process that can take several months from nomination to arrival -- a charge d’affaires can be appointed through a routine personnel decision without the need for agreement from a host country or other formalities typically required for an ambassador.
The last two US ambassadors to Korea were sworn in after 18-month vacancies.
Goldberg began his tenure as US ambassador in July 2022, ending an 18-month gap following Harry Harris’ resignation in January 2021. Similarly, Harris officially assumed the role in July 2018, filling an 18-month vacancy created by Mark Lippert’s resignation in January 2016.
US President-elect Donald Trump announced in December last year that he had selected former Senator David Perdue as the ambassador to China and businessman George Glass, a former US ambassador to Portugal, as the ambassador to Japan. However, Trump has yet to name a nominee for the position of US ambassador to South Korea.
Who is Yun?
Yun brings a 33-year diplomatic career specializing in North Korean affairs and Asia, during which he played a pivotal role in bridging the Obama and early Trump administrations before retiring from the US Foreign Service in March 2018.
Yun was appointed as the US special representative for North Korea policy in October 2016 under the Obama administration and continued in the role until his retirement in March 2018 under the first Trump administration.
Yun notably led efforts to restore the "New York channel," a direct line of communication with North Korean officials at their UN mission in New York, during the first Trump administration. Through this channel, he negotiated the release of American student Otto Warmbier, who had been held captive by the North for 15 months.
The New York channel, severed during the Obama administration, was reopened during Trump's first term but was cut off again following the breakdown of the second US-North Korea summit in Hanoi in February 2019.
Yun, a naturalized American citizen born in Seoul, also speaks Korean.
Yun served as US ambassador to Malaysia from 2013 to 2016 and principal deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 2011 to 2013, where he led efforts to normalize relations with Myanmar. His previous roles include counselor for political affairs in Seoul.
Currently, Yun is a senior advisor to the Asia Program at the US Institute of Peace.
