Michelle Steel, the new U.S. ambassador to South Korea, is spotlighting her Korean roots with visits to some of Seoul’s best-known landmarks soon after taking up her post.[1][6]
Steel said on X that she visited Namdaemun Market on Aug. 1, recalling “old memories” from a place she had not seen in a long time.[1][8] She wrote that many things had changed, but the market’s warmth, energy and familiar atmosphere felt the same, adding that rediscovering Seoul felt exciting.[1][8]
Photos she shared showed her in casual clothing walking through the market, holding hotteok, a popular Korean sweet pancake, and posing with merchants. Other images showed Steel and her husband, attorney Shawn Steel, making hand-heart gestures at the market entrance.[2][6][8]
A day earlier, Steel posted photos from Gwanghwamun, where she stood near the statue of King Sejong and said it reminded her of Korea’s legacy of innovation and leadership.[1][9] She also visited Youngnak Church shortly after arriving in Korea, a church known to have been attended by her parents, who were displaced from their homeland.[1][6]
Steel, the second Korean American to serve as U.S. ambassador to South Korea and the first Korean American woman in the post, arrived in Korea on July 30.[1][10] Born in Seoul in 1955, she moved to the United States in 1975 and later served as a California elected tax official, an Orange County supervisor and a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives.[1][13]
