The United States is currently governed by Donald Trump, a mercurial, nationalist buffoon whose tariff binges are rattling the world economy. He has been slapping high duties on trading partners across the board, even on allies like Korea, with which the U.S. concluded a free-trade agreement in 2007. Agreements forged through years of negotiation and diplomacy cannot be shredded on one man’s whim. But Trump is reckless enough to try and succeed. He seems blind to how this will hobble the American economy for years, especially companies dependent on international trade, and how it will squeeze ordinary American citizens as prices rise.
In times this volatile, President Lee Jae-myung could not simply appoint a new ambassador to Washington the moment he took office two months ago. Because that envoy will meet Trump and his team frequently, the choice had to be exacting. True to form, Lee’s decision is inspired: he selected Kyung-wha Kang, a former U.N. assistant secretary-general who later served as foreign minister under President Moon Jae-in, the first woman ever to hold that post. The ambassadorship may sit a rung below her past stations, but Lee knows she is singularly qualified. She proved an exceptional speaker and negotiator during her tenure as foreign minister. She also met Trump repeatedly while Moon mediated the buffoon’s overtures to Kim Jong Un of North Korea.
I doubt she leapt at the post, but I suspect she accepted it for Lee, and because she knows how critical this moment is for an export-driven Korea whose top trading partner is the United States, now forced to engage a leader as erratic as Trump in his second term.
One of my favorite images of her is the meeting with John Bolton, Trump’s hawkish, arrogant national security adviser in the late 2010s: Kang seated across from him, gaze insouciantly, with a swaggering half-smile.
She was often the only woman on either side of the negotiating table with Trump, and she never looked out of place. I can’t wait to be enthralled by her charisma again.
Lastly, here’s her interview with Christiane Amanpour on CNN last December, when Koreans moved swiftly to stop Yoon Seok-yul’s self-coup after his declaration of martial law.