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Former US Ambassadors to Korea effectively abandoned their plan to visit North Korea due to pressure from State Department, according to a diplomatic source in Seoul Sunday. The source said the ambassadors agreed to rearrange their schedule as requested by the State Department and the decision must have been notified to Pyongyang.
Former US ambassadors to Korea Donald Gregg, William Gleysteen and Richard Walker, and UC Berkeley Honorary Professor Robert Scalappino were supposed to make a four-day visit to North Korea from February 19.
The source said the State Department worried the trip coincides with US President George W. Bush's visit to three Asia nations from February 18. Bush is scheduled to visit to Seoul February 19 to 21. The source said the State Department's request was also related to Washington's harsher stance on North Korea since Bush's State of Union speech.
(Park Doo-shik, dspark@chosun.com )
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