Ambassador Charles L. Pritchard, Bush Administration Special Envoy to North Korea, to Join Brookings

Ambassador Charles L. Pritchard, a top aide to President Bush in the administration’s negotiations with North Korea and the U.S. Representative to the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), will join the Brookings Institution September 2 as a visiting fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies program.

While at Brookings, Pritchard, an expert on U.S. relations with Japan and Korea who was the director for Asian affairs in the Clinton administration, will research and write about political and security issues involving Japan and Korea, including Japan?s role in East Asia, North Korea?s nuclear program, and the U.S.-Japan and U.S.-South Korea security relationship.

“I’m very pleased that Ambassador Pritchard has chosen to join Brookings,” said James B. Steinberg, vice president and director of Foreign Policy Studies. “He has played a crucial role in many of the defining moments of U.S.-Asian relations in recent years. With the sensitive and evolving situation in Korea and the Far East, he will be a great addition to our program and will provide valuable insight into the region.”

Following a twenty-eight year career in the army, during which he held military assignments with the Office of the Secretary of Defense, as its country director for Japan, and with the U.S. Army Attaché in Tokyo, Pritchard joined the National Security Council in 1996. As director for Asian affairs, Pritchard advised President Clinton and National Security Advisors Anthony Lake and Samuel R. Berger on U.S. policies in the Asia Pacific region, including the president?s four-party peace initiative toward North Korea, and security/trade issues with Japan, South Korea, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

As deputy chief negotiator for the U.S.-Korea peace talks in 1997, Pritchard helped negotiate U.S. access to a sensitive underground facility in North Korea and solicited North Korea’s first apology for its hostile submarine incursion into South Korea.

In 2000, Pritchard was appointed special assistant to the president and senior director for Asian affairs, where he conceptualized and coordinated President Clinton’s historic trip to Vietnam. He also accompanied Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to North Korea for meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

Pritchard obtained his B.A. in Political Science from Mercer University in Georgia and his M.A. in International Studies from the University of Hawaii. He is the recipient of the Defense Distinguished Service Medal.