WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden introduced on Friday he intends to nominate Philip Goldberg, a profession diplomat and a former North Korea sanctions enforcer, as ambassador to South Korea, a White House assertion stated.
Goldberg has served since 2019 as ambassador to Colombia and beforehand as cost d’affaires in Cuba and ambassador to the Philippines and Bolivia, amongst different postings.
Goldberg additionally labored as coordinator for the implementation of United Nations sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear weapons and missile packages from 2009 to 2010.
Reuters reported plans for Goldberg’s nomination final month.
The put up in one of many United States’ key allies has been stuffed by a cost d’affaires for greater than a yr because the final ambassador to South Korea, former navy Admiral Harry Harris, stepped down when Biden took workplace in January 2021.
While Seoul and Washington insist their alliance is “iron-clad,” the sanctions have been a supply of controversy as they blocked South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s want for extra financial engagement with North Korea.
Harris’ tenure was marked by rigidity within the alliance as then-President Donald Trump pressed Seoul to pay billions of {dollars} extra towards supporting the roughly 28,500 U.S. troops stationed there, whereas South Korea chafed https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-usa-idUSKBN1ZF0RT on the U.S. push for strict sanctions enforcement.
The nomination of Goldberg, who faces a Senate affirmation listening to, comes at a time of heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula over a spate of missile exams by North Korea, which has lengthy been in search of reduction from U.S. and worldwide sanctions.
The exams have included the primary of an intermediate vary ballistic missile since 2017, elevating fears that North Korea might resume exams of intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear bombs for the primary time since that yr.
Biden’s administration has repeatedly urged North Korea to return to dialogue aimed toward persuading the reclusive state to quit its nuclear weapons packages however has been rebuffed, with Pyongyang saying it might not interact additional until Washington dropped hostile insurance policies.
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Sandra Maler)
