Secretary of State Clinton appoints Bosworth special envoy on Korea

[grantcart]

SOS Clinton has appointed one of the country's top serving diplomats with a long record of experience in Korea as the special envoy to work with Japan, China, S. Korea to coordinate on the situation with North Korea.


Clinton said the new U.S. special representative for North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, would work with South Korea, Japan, China and others to look at ways to get Pyongyang back to the negotiating table and deal with broader policy.

Bosworth will also deal with North Korean human rights and humanitarian issues, she said, praising him as "a capable and experienced diplomat" who will report to her and President Barack Obama.

En route to South Korea from Indonesia on Thursday on her first overseas trip as America's top diplomat, Clinton surprised reporters traveling with her when she spoke candidly about a possible succession crisis in North Korea and its impact on restarting the talks.

Those comments marked a rare, if not unprecedented, instance of a senior U.S. official publicly discussing such a diplomatically sensitive matter.

On Friday in Seoul, Clinton again acknowledged concerns over a potential power struggle to replace ailing North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, but she stressed that the United States was still addressing its concerns to the existing government.





http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CLINTON_KOREAS?SITE=VTBEN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

His background here;

Stephen W. Bosworth is the Dean of The Fletcher School at Tufts University and serves as a U.S. special envoy to North Korea. Previously, he served three times as a U.S. Ambassador, most recently to the Republic of Korea (1997-2000), previously to the Philippines (1984-1987), and initially as Ambassador to Tunisia (1979-1981). In 1987, he was recipient of American Academy of Diplomacy's Diplomat of the Year Award.

In February 2009, it was reported that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had named Bosworth to the post of special envoy to North Korea.

Before his appointment as Ambassador to Korea he was the Executive Director of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (1995-1997). Before coming to KEDO, he was president of the United States Japan Foundation.

Prior to 1984, his previous foreign service assignments include Paris, Madrid, Panama City, and Washington DC where he was the State Department’s Director of Policy Planning, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for inter-American affairs, and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Affairs.

He is currently a member of the International Board of Advisers for the president of the Philippines, and is also a member of the boards of International Textile Group and Franklin Templeton Investment Trust Management Co. (Korea).

At times he has held teaching and oversight positions at various colleges and universities: Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (1990-1994); Linowitz Chair of International Studies, Hamilton College (1993); Trustee, Dartmouth College (1992-2002), Chairman of Board of Trustees, (1996-1999).

It was also reported on MSNBC that SOS Clinton was going to appoint several additional special envoys. Her approach was scene as shaking up the State Department and getting a much more aggressive multi front diplomatic action. She is expected to appoint a special envoy to work solely on climate change negotiations as well.

[Bicoastal]

1. I, for one, think Bosworth will be an excellent envoy: