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New Mexico Governor to Visit North Korea
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (D) will spend three days in North Korea next week for nuclear disarmament talks with officials there, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Oct. 12). Richardson said yesterday he would not act as an official negotiator on behalf of the United States. He has traveled several times to North Korea before and was invited again earlier this year, but the trip was not approved by the Bush administration until recently, according to the Times. “I am not an official envoy, but I am supportive of the administration’s new policy to engage the North Koreans through dialogue and diplomacy,” said the former U.N. ambassador. Richardson is scheduled to leave Saturday and arrive in Pyongyang on Monday. The Bush administration backed the mission and is allowing Richardson to use an Air Force plane, the Times reported. “We’ve been in touch with Governor Richardson and we look forward to being in touch with him again on his return,” said Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the administration’s main envoy to North Korea nuclear talks. Richardson is scheduled to brief officials in Japan and South Korea following the talks, the Times reported. Richardson plans to advise North Korean officials on the country’s food, health and energy problems, his office announced (Steven Weisman, New York Times, Oct. 13). North Korean officials had invited Richardson to visit, and he put in a request to the State Department, a former U.S. official told Reuters. “He wanted to go. Chris Hill finally obliged him,” the official said. A State Department official said Richardson would not transmit any special message to Pyongyang from the Bush administration. Although Hill had considered visiting Pyongyang, North Korea put conditions on the trip, including having Washington endorse a North Korean nuclear energy program, one U.S. source told Reuters. A North Korea visit by top Senate Armed Services Committee members John Warner (R-Va.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.) had been in the works but has been delayed, U.S. officials said (Reuters/New York Times, Oct. 13).
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