North Korea

How It Started

In 1994, the U.S. and South Korea were on the brink of war with North Korea, convinced that the North was moving to develop nuclear weapons. President Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter were invited by then-President Kim Il Sung to visit North Korea to help defuse the volatile situation.

In June 1994, President and Mrs. Carter became the first people to cross the demilitarized zone from South Korea to North Korea and back again since the two countries were divided following the Korean War.

Our Work and Methods

After two days of talks, President Kim agreed to freeze North Korea’s nuclear program in exchange for the resumption of a dialogue with the U.S. government.

Impacts

• President Carter’s breakthrough in 1994 led to the first dialogue between the U.S. and North Korea in 40 years. Subsequent talks, in October 1994 and June 1995, succeeded in immobilizing North Korea’s spent nuclear fuel rods, preventing North Korea from developing nuclear weapons.
• The 1994 agreement held until 2002, when renewed tensions resulted in North Korea’s withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the restarting of a nuclear reactor.

In August 2010, former President Carter led a private humanitarian mission to free Aijalon Gomes, an American teacher who had been imprisoned in North Korea for seven months.

• Gomes, who taught English in South Korea, had been sentenced to eight years of hard labor and fined $700,000 for illegally entering North Korea through China.
• President Carter was invited by North Korean officials to enter the country and negotiate Gomes’ release.

Our Work and Methods

After getting approval from the White House, President Carter embarked on a visit to Pyongyang with a delegation from The Carter Center.

Impacts

• After two days of negotiation, North Korea agreed to release Gomes.
• President Carter accompanied Gomes on a flight to his hometown of Boston.

How It Started

In April 1999, the Center joined other relief and development organizations in a pilot initiative to boost potato production and improve food security in some of the poorest areas of North Korea.

Our Work and Methods

• The aid consortium purchased 1,000 metric tons of potato seed and supervised planting on farms in a southeastern North Korean province.
• A food-for-work program, with 100,000 metric tons of commodities provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, supported the potato seed initiative, targeting the people most in need of relief.

Impacts

• Working with other agencies ensured that aid was delivered as efficiently and effectively as possible.
• This marked the first time the American government provided humanitarian assistance directly to U.S. aid agencies for distribution in North Korea.