DASH clarifies former ambassador Yuri Kim's new position

Former United States Ambassador to Tirana, Yuri Kim, has received a new appointment at the U.S. Department of State. She will hold the position of Senior Advisor for Efficiency and Accountability.

This news was confirmed by the State Department itself, after several insinuations by Berisha that Kim had been dismissed from her post.

State Department statement on former Ambassador Kim:
Yuri Kim is the Senior Advisor for Efficiency and Accountability for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. Previously, Ambassador Kim was the Bureau's Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary from 2023 to 2025.

A career diplomat, Ambassador Kim has worked on major foreign policy and national security challenges in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. She was the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Albania from 2020 to 2023, appointed by President Trump and continuing under President Biden. Prior to that, she was Director of Southern European Affairs, responsible for Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, and the Eastern Mediterranean region; Director of the Center for the Study of the Conduct of Diplomacy; and Director of the Office of European Security and Politico-Military Affairs, responsible for NATO and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

She was Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of State and, earlier in her career, Special Assistant to Secretary Colin Powell. She was also a member of the U.S. delegation to the Six-Party Talks on the DPRK nuclear issue. Overseas assignments include Turkey, Iraq, the Republic of Korea, Japan, and China. Yuri Kim holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge. She was raised on the island of Guam.