Christopher R. Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon.
Wikipedia Biography of RPCV Christopher Hill by Peru RPCV Hugh Pickens
Christopher R. Hill
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Assistant Secretary Christopher R. Hill
Assistant Secretary Christopher R. Hill
Christopher R. Hill is an American diplomat who currently serves as the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Education and Peace Corps Service
* 2 Diplomacy
* 3 Negotiations with North Korea
* 4 Reputation in East Asia
* 5 Personal Life
* 6 Publication(s)
* 7 References
* 8 External links
[edit] Education and Peace Corps Service
Hill graduated from Bowdoin College with an B.A. in economics in 1974. [1]
Hill was a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon from 1974 to 1976. Hill credits his work with the Peace Corps for teaching him his first lessons in diplomacy. As a volunteer, Hill worked with credit unions and when he discovered that one board of directors had stolen 60 percent of their members' money, he reported on the malfeasance to their members, who promptly re-elected them because the board reflected carefully balanced tribal interests and it really didn't matter to the members if the board directors ran a good credit union or not. Hill said the lesson was that "When something's happened, it's happened for a reason and you do your best to understand that reason. But don't necessarily think you can change it." [2]
Hill received a Master's degree from the Naval War College in 1994.
Hill speaks several European languages (Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, and Albanian) and Korean.
[edit] Diplomacy
Hill joined the State Department in 1977. [3]
Hill served as secretary for economic affairs at the US Embassy in Seoul from 1983 to 1985. When he returned to Korea in 2004 as US Ambassador he began by saying "I was here for three years in the 1980s, one has to be a little careful about drawing on too much experience from so long ago. So, even though I'll certainly draw on my experience from the 1980s, I think I also need to do an awful lot of listening to people to understand what has been going on lately." [4]
Hill served as the ambassador to Macedonia from 1996 to 1999, Special Envoy to Kosovo in 1998 and 1999, ambassador to Poland from 2000 to 2004, and ambassador to the Republic of Korea from 2004 to 2005 before being appointed as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
While on a fellowship with the American Political Science Association, Hill served as a member of the staff of Congressman Stephen Solarz.
While working on Balkan issues, Hill worked closely with Richard Holbrooke, serving as his deputy at the Dayton Peace Talks in 1995.
In November 2006 President George W. Bush nominated Hill for the grade of career minister, the second-highest rank for career diplomats. The elite title is one step below career ambassador.
[edit] Negotiations with North Korea
Hill served as the head of the U.S. delegation to the six-party talks aimed at resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis.
In the first visit to North Korea by a senior American official in over five years, Hill flew into Pyongyang on June 21, 2007 for a two day visit where he was warmly greeted by Ri Gun, the North’s deputy nuclear negotiator at the airport. “We want to get the six-party process moving,” Mr. Hill said. “We hope that we can make up for some of the time that we lost this spring, and so I’m looking forward to good discussions about that.” The visit had been organized in secrecy. Hill had been visiting Tokyo and flew to South Korea and then on to Pyongyang on a small jet. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice informed regional allies Japan and South Korea just before Hill's departure from Tokyo. [5]
On July 14, 2007 North Korea informed Hill that they had shut down the nuclear reactor at Yongbyon and admitted an interantional inspection team. Hill cautioned that the shutdown was “just the first step.” Verifying the declaration will be difficult, because for now the inspectors are limited to the Yongbyon complex.[6]
[edit] Reputation in East Asia
In Seoul, Hill had one of the happiest moments in his life because his beloved Boston Red Sox defeated their much-hated rival New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series and won the World Series in 2004. One of the subjects Hill spoke about with his South Korean diplomatic counterparts upon his arrival in Seoul as the new U.S. ambassador was the Red Sox' 2003 closing pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim. [7]
Hill's mention of Kim was an early indication that the new U.S. ambassador to Seoul would set a new precedent by closely approaching to South Korea's contemporary culture and society. He frequently had dialogues with South Koreans at universities, cyber chat rooms, and sometimes places that are considered hotbeds of anti-U.S. sentiments. He was the first U.S. ambassador to pay respects at Gwangju's Mangwoldong May 18 National Cemetary for thousands of civilians who stood up for democracy and were massacred by the then-military government in May 1980. Many South Koreans suspected that the U.S. government allowed the attack, and no senior U.S. official had ever visited Mangwoldong before. According to Tami Overby, a senior official with the American Chamber of Commerce in South Korea, Hill served the shortest term in her 18 years of life in Seoul but had the most impact.[8]
Although Hill is not well known in the United States, he has become a celebrity also in China as chief envoy in talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Part of the reason is that during negotiations Hill speaks every morning and evening to the media and has an easygoing manner, while his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye Gwan, gives only occasional media access. Hill has also won over the media in Japan. After the Boston Red Sox signed pitching star Daisuke Matsuzaka from the Seibu Lions, Hill turned up for meetings in Tokyo wearing a Seibu Lions baseball cap. [9]
[edit] Personal Life
Hill is married and has three children. After Hill was promoted from US Ambassador to Korea to Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, his wife, Patty Hill, and their two daughters remained in Korea until the end of the school year so his daughters could complete their studies. [10]
[edit] Publication(s)
* "The geopolitical implications of enlargement". In Jan Zielonka (ed.), Europe unbound -- Enlarging and reshaping the boundaries of the European Union. (Routledge, 2002).
[edit] References
1. ^ http://www.bowdoin.edu/podcasts/
2. ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/20/AR2005092001426.html
3. ^ http://peacecorpsonline.org/messages/messages/467/2022892.html
4. ^ http://peacecorpsonline.org/messages/messages/467/2022892.html
5. ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/21/AR2007062100454.html?hpid=topnews
6. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/world/asia/15nuke.html?ref=world
7. ^ http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200408/200408170030.html
8. ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/20/AR2005092001426_2.html
9. ^ http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/13/world/main2468358.shtml
10. ^ http://seoul.usembassy.gov/april_7_2005.html
[edit] External links
* State Department profile
* The Beijing Accord and the Future of the Six-Party Talks Christopher Hill's comments at U.S. Institute of Peace, September 2005 (Audio)
* Washington Post Profile
* Speech at the University of Chicago in April 2006 at Chicago Society's "China and the Future of the World" conference
* "Notable Former Volunteers / Foreign Service". Peace Corps official site. Accessed 5 January 2007.
* Peace Corps Biography of Christopher R. Hill
