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Chronology of N. Korea visits by high-profile U.S. figures
SEOUL, Dec. 8 (Yonhap) -- The following is a chronology of trips made to North Korea by high-profile U.S. officials and figures since 1994.
Jan. 27-Feb. 1, 1994 -- U.S. evangelist Rev. Billy Graham preaches at Pyongyang's Pongsu Church and meets with North Korean President Kim Il-sung. He delivered a secret message from Kim to U.S. President Bill Clinton.
June 15-17, 1994 -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter meets with North Korean President Kim Il-sung, after which Pyongyang agrees to freeze its nuclear arms development program, suspend nuclear fuel reprocessing, accept visits by U.N. monitors and hold dialogue with South Korea in exchange for energy aid and diplomatic incentives. The commitments were put down in writing in the Geneva Agreed Framework between the U.S. and North Korea in October that year.
Dec. 11-12, 1994 -- Senators Paul Simon and Frank Murkowski travel to Pyongyang to discuss the implementation of the Geneva agreement with Kim Yong-nam, North Korea's deputy prime minister and foreign minister.
Dec. 17-30, 1994 -- Thomas Hubbard, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state, visits North Korea as a special envoy to negotiate the release of U.S. Army helicopter pilot Bobby Hall. Hall was freed 13 days after his helicopter strayed into North Korea. Days earlier, New Mexico Representative Bill Richardson flew to Pyongyang to negotiate the return of the body of Hill's flying partner, David Hilemon, killed when their copter was apparently shot down.
Nov. 25-27, 1996 -- Richardson negotiates the release of Evan Hunziker, an American who swam across the Amnok (Yalu) River from China into North Korea and was jailed for three months in the North on spy charges.
March 28-29, 1997 -- U.S. senators led by Ted Stevens travel to Pyongyang to discuss establishing liaison offices in each other's capitals.
Aug. 9-11, 1997 -- Porter Goss, chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, visits North Korea to discuss the repatriation of the remains of U.S. soldiers who fought in the Korean War and the opening of liaison offices.
Nov. 16-18, 1998 -- Charles Kartman, U.S. special envoy to the Korean peace process, meets with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan in Pyongyang.
March 29-30, 1999 -- Robert Einhorn, deputy assistant secretary for nonproliferation at the U.S. State Department, visits Pyongyang for the fourth round of missile talks with Jang Chang-chon, director-general for the North Korean Foreign Ministry's U.S. affairs department.
May 14-15, 1999 -- Charles Kartman, U.S. special envoy to the Korean peace process, again meets with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan.
May 20-24, 1999 -- Joel Wit, deputy chief of the Korea desk at the U.S. State Department, leads a U.S. inspection team to the suspected North Korean nuclear site at Kumchangri.
May 25-28, 1999 -- William Perry, special advisor to the U.S. president on North Korea, delivers a letter from Bill Clinton to Kim Jong-il through Kim Yong-nam, North Korea's ceremonial head of state.
May 23-27, 2000 -- Charles Pritchard, the Bush administration's special envoy for negotiations with North Korea, visits the suspected nuclear site at Kumchangri.
Oct. 23-25, 2000 -- U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright makes a historic visit to North Korea and holds two rounds of talks with Kim Jong-il, discussing ways to ease tension on the Korean Peninsula and the opening of diplomatic missions in each other's capitals.
Oct. 3-5, 2002 -- U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly visits North Korea as President George W. Bush's special envoy and later says Pyongyang admitted to operating an uranium enrichment program.
May 30, 2003 -- Six U.S. congressmen including Curt Weldon meet North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun over ways to resolve the nuclear dispute.
Jan. 8-11, 2005 -- U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos presents Libya as a model for solving the North Korean nuclear dispute in a meeting with North Korea's vice foreign minister, Kim Kye-gwan.
April 8-11, 2007 -- New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Victor Cha, Asia director at the National Security Council, travel to North Korea to discuss the repatriation of the remains of U.S. soldiers who fought in the Korean War and press for the dismantlement of the North's nuclear program.
June 21-22, 2007 -- Christopher Hill, U.S. chief envoy to the six-party nuclear talks, travels to North Korea.
May 8-10, 2008 -- Sung Kim, head of the U.S. State Department's Korea desk, travels to North Korea and receives a declaration of its nuclear stockpile at its Yongbyon facility.
Oct. 1-3, 2008 -- Hill visits Pyongyang to discuss the verification of North Korea's nuclear program.
Aug. 4, 2009 -- U.S. former President Bill Clinton arrives in Pyongyang in a visit believed to be aimed at securing the release of two detained American journalists. Laura Ling and Euna Lee from the San Francisco-based media group Current TV were detained on the China-North Korea border on March 17 while reporting on North Korean defectors. They flew home with Clinton.
Dec. 8, 2009 -- Stephen Bosworth, special representative for North Korea, visits Pyongyang for the first bilateral talks since President Barack Obama took office in January.
(END)
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