US Ambassador Steel visits Namdaemun Market, continues hands-on Seoul tour

Michelle Steel (Korean name Park Eun-joo), the first US ambassador to South Korea under the second Trump administration, has shared photos from visits to Gwanghwamun and Namdaemun Market.

Steel announced the market visit Saturday through her X account. "Returning to Namdaemun Market after so long brought back a flood of cherished memories," she wrote. "So much has changed, yet the warmth, energy and familiar scenes remain just as I remembered. I'm thrilled to rediscover Seoul — at once familiar and refreshingly new."

She also posted photos of herself and her husband, attorney Shawn Steel, striking a finger-heart pose in front of the market, as well as a cheerful shot with a vendor while holding a hotteok pancake.

On Friday, she posted a photo taken in front of the statue of King Sejong at Gwanghwamun. "Passing by the statue of King Sejong reminded me once again of Korea's remarkable legacy of innovation and leadership," she wrote. "I look forward to the journey we will build together. Join me."

Steel was born in Seoul in 1955 and emigrated to the United States in 1975. Her visits to symbolic landmarks and traditional markets shortly after taking up her post appear aimed at building rapport with the Korean public. On Thursday, the day she arrived in South Korea, she visited Youngnak Presbyterian Church — a congregation her parents, who were displaced during the Korean War, had attended.

Steel, the first Korean American woman to serve as US ambassador to South Korea, formally took up her post on Thursday. She previously served as an elected member of the California State Board of Equalization and as a supervisor of Orange County. From 2021, she served four years as a Republican member of the US House of Representatives.

Her arrival ends a roughly year-and-a-half vacancy in the ambassadorial post, though a number of contentious issues remain between the two countries, including the Coupang Inc dispute. In an op-ed published by Yonhap on Friday, Steel said she looked forward to "working with the Republic of Korea so that the ironclad Korea-US alliance continues as a linchpin of peace and security in the region and keeps meeting the needs of both our peoples."