US Embassy denies new envoy waiting in the wings

MANILA, Philippine — The US Embassy on Wednesday denied reports that Ambassador Sung Kim will soon be replaced by another official at the US Department of State.

“We’ve seen this claim. It is not true,” the embassy said, two days after reports said Washington’s new envoy would be Mina Chang, deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations of the state department.

No announcements made

The US Embassy said the White House announced in September last year that US President Donald Trump intended to nominate Chang as assistant administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for its Asian bureau.

Since the nomination was referred to the Senate foreign relations committee in January 2019, “there have been no additional White House announcements regarding her nomination to the USAID position,” the embassy said.

The fake news report about a new US ambassador to the country came out in a local newspaper (not the Inquirer) on Wednesday but the US Embassy did not immediately comment, feeding speculations in social media.