Update at 1715 EST: This article has been updated to include comment from U.S. Senator Cory Gardner.

The U.S. Senate confirmed Stephen Biegun, the Trump administration’s special representative for North Korea, as Deputy Secretary of State on Thursday. The vote was 90 to 3.

The new promotion places Biegun in the number-two position in the State Department, behind only Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and comes at a pivotal moment in Washington’s current round of negotiations with Pyongyang.

Biegun was in China during the Senate vote, part of a multi-day tour of East Asia in which the envoy reportedly had sought