On the 7th (KST), the U.S. Embassy in Korea announced that Deputy Chief of Mission Jim Heller (pictured) is serving as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim. [Website of the U.S. Embassy in Korea]

The U.S. Embassy in Korea announced on the 7th (KST) that James "Jim" Heller is serving as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim of the U.S. Embassy in Korea.

Deputy Chief of Mission Heller began his duties as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Korea in July 2025.

There was widespread speculation that the Trump administration's recall of Kevin Kim, who had been dispatched as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim, and the subsequent promotion of the Deputy Chief of Mission working locally to Chargé d'Affaires ad interim, was an expression of Trump's dissatisfaction with the Lee Jae-myung administration.

Some interpret this as a signal that the U.S. does not recognize Lee Jae-myung as a legitimate and rightful president, stating, "The U.S. ambassador cannot present credentials to a fake president."

For instance, in the case of Venezuela, the U.S. has not sent an ambassador since 2010. However, President Trump did appoint and dispatch a Chargé d'Affaires ad interim in 2017, at which time there was a special mission to secure the release of American citizen Joshua Holt, who was imprisoned in Venezuela.

Kevin Kim, the Chargé d'Affaires ad interim of the U.S. Embassy in Korea, returned after about 70 days in office. He arrived in October last year and coordinated the U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to South Korea for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit and the ROK-U.S. summit.

Ambassador Kim will return to the Department of State. In the second term of the Trump administration, he was appointed as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, overseeing diplomacy with South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Mongolia.

He was expected to have a significant voice regarding Korean Peninsula issues within the Trump administration.

Meanwhile, according to the U.S. Embassy in Korea, Heller is a senior career diplomat at the State Department, most recently serving as Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Prior to that, he served as Consul General in Shanghai.

In Washington, he worked in the Japan Desk, Taiwan Coordination Office, Korea Desk, Situation Room, Office of Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus Affairs, and the Multilateral Trade Affairs office within the State Department. Among overseas posts, he served twice at the U.S. Embassy in China, as well as at the U.S. Embassy in South Korea and the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, and has experience working with the Korean-led Provincial Reconstruction Team in Arbil.

Deputy Chief of Mission Heller, who has military service experience in the U.S. Army, holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Michigan and also studied at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center. He and his wife, Lisa, a retired senior diplomat, have an adult daughter and son.

U.S. NNP=Sung Ku Hong, Chief Correspondent / Special Dispatch NNP info@newsandpost.com