By Barry Massey/
Associated Press
SANTA FE — New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who has served as diplomatic troubleshooter, has been invited to visit North Korea, his office confirmed Wednesday.
However, no details of the possible visit were provided.
"Governor Richardson has been invited and the trip is under consideration. He intends to coordinate fully with the Bush administration should the visit take place,'' Billy Sparks, the governor's spokesman, said in response to questions from The Associated Press.
Sparks said he could provide no other information, including when the visit might occur or whether North Korean officials have offered to allow the governor to visit the country's nuclear reactor in Yongbyon.
Richardson was in France and Germany last week as part of a state trade mission and then vacationed in Europe with his wife. He was scheduled to return to New Mexico on Thursday, Sparks said.
Richardson served an ambassador to the United Nations and secretary of the Energy Department during the Clinton administration. He has dealt previously with North Korea, including meeting with envoys from the nation in 2003 as diplomatic tensions escalated over North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
For the past year, North Korea has boycotted six-country talks backed by the Bush administration as a way to achieve nuclear disarmament in North Korea.
News reports of Richardson's possible visit to North Korea surfaced as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice prepared to visit South Korea next week.
South Korean diplomats have said Rice's July 12-13 visit to that country will offer an opportunity for discussions on how to resume the nuclear disarmament talks involving North Korea.
Richardson, shortly after taking office as governor in 2003, held three days of talks in Santa Fe with two North Korean envoys. The governor called it "green-chili diplomacy'' — a reference to the New Mexico green chili and enchiladas eaten by the North Koreans during their visit.
Those meetings came after a North Korean official at the United Nations, with whom Richardson had previous dealings, contacted the governor, and the Bush administration granted the North Koreans permission to travel to New Mexico.
In 1996, Richardson — then a New Mexico congressman — went to North Korea and helped secure the release of an American detained for three months on spy charges. Two years earlier, Richardson helped free a U.S. soldier whose helicopter had strayed into North Korea.
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