Reuters managing editor for politics, economics and world news Mark Bendeich sent the following message to staff:
I am delighted to announce that Soyoung Kim has been appointed News Editor, North Asia, Southeast Asia and Australasia. She will run a region that is home to the world’s second and third largest economies, dozens of its biggest companies, more than a quarter of the global population and a geopolitical story that dominates all others – the rise of China.
Soyoung is ideally qualified for the job, having excelled as a reporter and editor across Asia and North America, on both breaking news and agenda-setting enterprise journalism. In a career spanning the entire file, she has covered some of the biggest political, diplomatic and corporate moments of the 21st century, including the 2020 U.S. presidential election, the 2018 and 2019 summits between Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and the bankruptcy and restructuring of the U.S. auto industry after the global financial crisis.
She has won three Journalist of the Year Awards: best editor in 2020, leader of the best reporting team for M&A coverage in 2013, and a member of the team that won the companies story of the year in 2008. Soyoung also shared in another award for autos coverage from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing in 2008. Soyoung, currently based in Washington as U.S. elections editor, will be relocating to Seoul for her new assignment, returning to the city where she began her career with Reuters in 2005.