Chungcheongnam-do

In September, 1975, a 22 year old American woman got off a train at the Yesan station with 2 big trunks. That woman, who had crossed the pacific ocean to teach English in Yesan Middle School as a member of the Peace Corps, came to be attracted to the beauty of Korean fall which she experienced for the first time. Golden field as the rice came to maturity, slender cosmos in full bloom and persimons of yellowish red color on the soaring twigs to the sky...
In 2008, after 33 years, She came back into the fall of South Korea with an important mission as the 29th U.S. Ambassador to South Korea. She is the first woman ambassador for 125 years since Korea formed diplomatic relations with U.S. In 1883.

Experience of Serving As a Peace Corpsman in Yesan, for 2 Years
New ambassador Kathleen once served as an English teacher in the Yesan Middle School immediately after she came to Korea as a Peace Corps volunteer 33 years ago. Ambassador Kathleen revisited that school and saw a Taekwondo exhibition and an English class by a native speaker and received a certificate of honorary teacher. She particularly got a Korean name called Eunkyeong Shim after she got accustomed to the Korean situations.
Those 2 years were so important period to her because it decided Ms. Kathleen Stephens's course of life. She took the diplomatic service examination which was held at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul and started her new life as a professional diplomat. She recalled that time, “I could remember that I came up from Yesan to Seoul by train and stayed at a hotel located in Shinchon to take the examination.”


Ambassador Kathleen Revisit to Chungnam Province
“I am happy to come back to Chungnam. Chungnam is very familiar to me”
Ambassador Kathleen happily smiled when she visited Chungnam on October 28th, 2008. Ambassador Kathleen showed her unchanged affection for Chungnam where she had served as a Peace Corps volunteer more than 30 years ago. And she willingly promised her participation in the Baekje Cultural Festival and maintenance of friendly relations with Chungnam at the meeting with provincial governor Wangu Lee.
Ambassador Kathleen said, “There are so much external changes in Chungnam such as new highways and new buildings but people's kindheartedness seems to be the same.” And she introduced her past,“I moved about to a new school every week like a nomad after I had served at Yesan middle school for 1 year.” “Therefore I know about Chungnam very well. Actually, I personally visited Buyeo 2 years ago.”
To Governor Wangu Lee a request for her participation in the Baekje Cultural Festival, she answered, “I felt the Baekje Cultural Festival was very impressive to me when I saw it by photos. If an invitation is given to me, I would gladly to attend.”
And she promised, “I'll advise persons concerned about merits of Chungnam because there are so many excellent human resources in Chungnam and I have confidence in Chungnam.”

Adapting Herself to Korean Environments by Means of Seeing the Korean Movies
Ambassador Kathleen emphasized that she would make more efforts to closely approach common Koreans and communicate with them by surpassing the traditional role of U.S. Ambassador to South Korea.
But tough challenges are also placed in front of her. There are lots of pending problems between Korea and U.S. such as the Ratification of FTA, Visa Waiver Program(VWP), Relocation of the 2nd Division in Pyeongtak, North Korea Nuclear stand-off, etc. Sometimes there is tense atmosphere between Korea and U.S. over sensitive issues like the Beef Deal, the Labeling case of Dokdo islets as the ‘Undesignated Sovereignty’ area by the BGN: Board on Geographic Names under the USGS: U.S. Geological Survey.
Although these pending problems and sensitive issues, Ambassador Kathleen is highly expected to play a bridge role in making a new horizontal relationship suitable for the 21st century between Korea and U.S.A.