Dr. K.A. Namkung, left, walks with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson at a news conference before departing for North Korea in this Oct. 15, 2005 file photo. (AP Photo/Jeff Geissler, File)
A Quiet Envoy To The Hermit Kingdom Of North Korea -- Christian Science Monitor
A Korean-American scholar named Kun A. 'Tony' Namkung plays a significant behind-the-scenes role in exchanges between the US and North Korea.
In an atmosphere of North Korean threats and rhetoric, a mysterious Korean-American plays a behind-the-scenes role that may be more significant than that of the better known actors in the drama.
His name is Kun A.“Tony” Namkung, a self-styled “independent scholar and consultant,” and he’s been offering advice to high-level US missions to North Korea ever since the first nuclear crisis that nearly plunged the US into armed conflict with the North in the early 1990s.
Most recently, Mr. Namkung was the central figure in arranging two missions to North Korea last month – first when he accompanied Google Chairman Eric Schmidt and the former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson to Pyongyang, and again at the side of Associated Press Vice President John Daniszewski as the AP marked the first anniversary of the opening of its Pyongyang bureau.
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My Comment: An interesting profile .... but it avoids mentioning who are Kun A.“Tony” Namkung's contacts in North Korea.