He was nominated in September 2009 by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the United States Senate in November 2009, to serve as United States special envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues, an ambassadorial ranked position.

Earlier he was Assistant Director of Research at Radio Free Europe in Munich, Germany, and as a White House Fellow (National Security staff), a member of the National Security Council Staff in the Carter Administration.

While working for Radio Free Europe in Germany, he proposed returning the Holy Crown of Hungary to Hungary to help improve relations with that nation in a mock memo as part of his application to work in a White House Fellow for the Carter Administration.

[3] King received the Knight’s Cross Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary.

He is a Latter-day Saint and served from 1961 to 1963 as a missionary in the New England Mission of the LDS Church.