On May 20, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a confirmation hearing for former California Rep. Michelle Steel (R), President Trump’s nominee for U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea.
Her nomination comes at a critical time when South Korea — a key U.S. treaty ally in the Indo-Pacific — continues its pro-China, pro-North Korea drift under President Lee Jae-myung and his left-wing Democratic Party of Korea (DPK). Given that Steel is a staunch anti-communist, she’s the right person for this position.
During the hearing, Steel vowed to protect American companies in South Korea, stating that they must receive “the same market access that Korean companies enjoy in the United States.” Seoul has been treating Chinese e-commerce platforms, which are required to comply with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), favorably due to their growing partnerships with South Korean firms.
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She also mentioned Seoul’s $50 billion trade surplus with the U.S. and her plan to push South Korean officials for more details on their $350 billion investment pledge.
While Steel received bipartisan praise at her hearing, far-left organizations and individuals in the U.S. and in South Korea have been hard at work trying to derail her confirmation. This is another indicator that she's the right person for the job.
In the U.S., Korea Peace Now!, Women Cross DMZ, Korea Policy Institute, and the Korean American Democratic Committee have been leading this effort. These groups circulated an online petition calling for the “immediate withdrawal” of her nomination and published attack pieces.
The first three organizations serve as pro-North Korea front groups. They also maintain close ties to the Singham Network, a collection of leftist activist organizations funded by China-based and CCP-linked billionaire Neville Roy Singham.
Korea Peace Now! and the Korea Policy Institute — along with The People’s Forum and the ANSWER Coalition, both Singham Network groups — were conveners of the 2025 People’s Summit for Korea, a three-day pro-North Korea, anti-U.S. conference held in New York City. Women Cross DMZ’s executive director also spoke at the summit.
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In South Korea, 422 left-wing organizations have banded together to oppose Steel’s confirmation. Candlelight Action, a leftist coalition, staged a protest outside the U.S. Embassy in Seoul earlier this month. They accused Washington of interfering in South Korea’s domestic affairs and “attacking” the Lee administration.
In July of last year, Kim Joon-hyung, a lawmaker from the far-left Rebuilding Korea Party, labeled Steel an “anti-Korea figure” and called for the Lee administration to block agrément should she be confirmed as ambassador.
Never underestimate South Korea’s leftists in how they work to achieve their objectives. The Trump administration must not bend to any diplomatic pressure or requests from the Lee government and its allies to withdraw Steel’s nomination.
And while the Lee administration may choose not to deny her agrément for fear of igniting a diplomatic row with the U.S., you can count on other ways for South Korean leftists to undermine Steel.
Far-left extremists in South Korea have a long history of physically and verbally attacking American diplomats who they believe pose a threat to their anti-U.S. agenda. Examples include Juche ideologue Jung Chung-rae — a legislator and the leader of Lee’s DPK — who broke into the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Seoul in 1989 and detonated improvised bombs, and far-left activist Kim Ki-jong, who slashed the face of the U.S. ambassador in 2015.
Given this pattern and the opposition her nomination has garnered from left-wing extremists, the Department of State needs to beef up Michelle Steel’s security detail once she is in Seoul. It goes without saying that there’s no such thing as a peaceful leftist. When they tell you who they dislike, always believe them.
