U.S. Envoy for North Korea to Leave Post

U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Stephen Bosworth is leaving the administration, a senior State Department official said today.

Glyn Davies, U.S. envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, will take his place, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the move had not yet been formally announced.

An official announcement is expected later today. Bosworth’s replacement comes a week before meetings in Geneva to discuss North Korea’s nuclear program, according to the Associated Press, which first reported the departure.

This marks a complete turnover of the Obama administration’s North Korea team. Sung Kim, who was envoy to the Six Party Talks that aim to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, was recently confirmed as ambassador to South Korea.

Bosworth met with a North Korean delegation in New York in the summer for the first time since he visited Pyongyang in December 2009, but relations with the secretive communist country remained stalled during his tenure.

Bosworth spent most of his time at Tufts University outside Boston, where he remained dean of the Fletcher School of international affairs while working on North Korea issues.