North Koreans Tour Nation's Capital

Oct. 4, 2007 — -- Last month, North Korea's delegation to the United Nations traveled with their families on a secret U.S.-sanctioned trip to Washington for a weekend of sightseeing.

The rare trip out of New York was organized by the nonprofit Korea Society as a way of increasing the diplomats' understanding of the United States with an eye toward improving relations between the two countries.

The trip also illustrates a new softer approach by the Bush administration in dealing with North Korea. After the United States shunned North Korea for years, North Korea's nuclear test a year ago triggered a renewed effort by the United States and others to rid Pyongyang of its nuclear weapons.

In recent months, the United States has struck a more conciliatory tone, offering North Korea large amounts of aid in return for cooperation in denuclearization.

"One of [the] things we're working on is an effort to break down barriers of misunderstanding between the U.S. and North Korea," the Korea Society's president, Evans Revere, said of the trip, "and trying to expose some of the North Korean mission representatives to a bigger slice of America to get them to hopefully gain a better understanding of the United States."

Normally, North Korean diplomats, like the Iranians and Cubans, cannot travel outside of a 25-mile radius of New York City, but the State Department readily approved the trip according to Revere, a former senior official at the State Department's Korea desk.

"It was relatively easy [to convince them]. There is a common understanding between us and our colleagues at [the State Department] that there is an advantage to exposing the North Korean mission to more of America," he said, adding that the atmosphere between the countries is improving and that there is a desire to take advantage of that opportunity.

A State Department official insisted the North Koreans had no official meetings when they were in Washington on Sept. 8 and 9 and were accompanied only by Korea Society members and executives, not government officials.

Some members of the North Korean delegation had been to Washington in the late 1990s, Revere explained, when they came at his invitation for negotiations on issues such as North Korea's support for terrorism and the possible removal of North Korea from the terror list.

"This time, they came down to take a look at the monuments and have a few meals," he said, adding that many in the delegation displayed a profound understanding of U.S. culture and history despite hailing from one of the most reclusive countries in the world.

There are no plans yet for additional excursions, but Revere said he would like to organize others in the future. In particular, he hopes to facilitate meetings between the North Korean delegation and key members of Congress and their staff.

In March, the Korea Society invited Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea's envoy to the nuclear negotiations, to speak in New York City. His U.S. counterpart, Ambassador Christopher Hill, met with Kim during his visit.

New York Philharmonic to North Korea

Today, a small contingent from the New York Philharmonic orchestra departed for North Korea to plan logistics for an eventual concert in Pyongyang. It was joined by a Korea Society vice president and a State Department official.

The State Department confirmed that a "working level" official with "Korean language skills" is headed there with the group, but would not release the official's name.

The group is set to enter North Korea on Saturday and depart Tuesday.

It's not official that the full orchestra will make the trip and no dates have been set, but the small group is looking at venues and hotels to accommodate the tricky logistics of transporting the entire ensemble and its instruments to the isolated country.