Monday, March 31, 2008

Abby meets Christopher Hill

**Original post December 1, 2007

Today I met someone whose name I've read at least once weekly during KBS news reports. He is Christopher Hill, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and also chief nuclear negotiator with North Korea. Hill has been in Seoul the last couple of days in preparation for his second trip to Pyongyang (the capital of North Korea) on Monday. There, he'll check on the progress of the North's nuclear disablement. He expects China, the host of the next six-party talks, to receive a full declaration outlining the country's nuclear program within the next week. I attended a lecture given by Hill to a crowd of just around 30 people at Ewha Women's University in Seoul. Hill gave a thorough, yet straightforward and uncomplicated account of North Korea's nuclear issue from the U.S. perspective. He also took questions from the crowd, and sitting in the front row, of course I jumped right in! He was an extremely laid back, affable man who seems to care genuinely about resolving this issue in a diplomatic fashion.

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