Deputy Assistant Secretary of Protection for East Asia John Noh speaks throughout a Senate affirmation listening to in Washington, Oct. 7, on this picture captured from a livestream from the Senate Committee on Armed Companies’ web site. Yonhap
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate has confirmed a Korean American official as assistant secretary of protection for Indo-Pacific safety affairs, a put up that offers with protection cooperation with South Korea and different regional allies and companions, Congress’ web site confirmed Friday.
On Thursday, the higher chamber authorized John Noh, who has served as deputy assistant secretary of protection for East Asia, in a 53-43 vote.
The affirmation got here as Seoul and Washington are working to deepen safety cooperation and “modernize” the bilateral alliance amid North Korea’s advancing nuclear and ballistic missile threats and China’s rising assertiveness.
In his written solutions to questions from the Senate Armed Companies Committee in October, Noh stated that many South Korean protection capabilities might contribute to deterring China, as he confused that the US’ protection priorities ought to give attention to addressing the “most severe” army risk of the Asian superpower.
Concerning China’s naval actions within the Yellow Sea, Noh stated that these actions look like geared toward “intimidating” South Korea. The actions apparently referred to China’s set up of metal buildings within the Provisional Maritime Zone, an overlapping sea zone between the 2 international locations.
President Donald Trump nominated him for the assistant secretary put up in June.
Earlier than becoming a member of the Pentagon, Noh served as deputy normal counsel on the U.S. Home Choose Committee on the Chinese language Communist Occasion. Previous to his stint on the committee, Noh was an legal professional in personal observe and labored on cross-border investigations.
Noh is a graduate of Brown College and Stanford Legislation College.
