Han Park is a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

at the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. He has acted as an unofficial negotiator between the United States and North Korea. He was born in the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

in an area now controlled by the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. His

parents A parent is a caregiver of the offspring in their own species. In humans, a parent is the caretaker of a child (where "child" refers to offspring, not necessarily age). A ''biological parent'' is a person whose gamete resulted in a child, a male t ...

were Korean. He has a

Seoul National University Seoul National University (SNU; ) is a national public research university located in Seoul, South Korea. Founded in 1946, Seoul National University is largely considered the most prestigious university in South Korea; it is one of the three "S ...

B.A., an

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

M.A., a

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

Ph.D. He is Director of the Center for the Study of Global Issues (GLOBIS) at the University of Georgia. He negotiated for the release of

Laura Ling Laura Ling (born December 1, 1976) is an American journalist and writer. She worked for Current TV as a correspondent and vice president of its Vanguard Journalism Unit, which produced the ''Vanguard'' TV series. She was the host and reporter o ...

and

Euna Lee Euna Lee (Hangul:유나 리; born 1972) is a Korean American journalist. While working for Current TV, Lee and fellow journalist Laura Ling were detained in North Korea after they crossed into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from ...

, two American citizens who crossed the border (according to their confession) to do a news story about North Korea. They were accompanied by a camera man and Korean guide but both men were able to run away faster when the North Koreans tried to arrest the four.

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

refused to say whether she sent Park to negotiate on behalf of the U.S. government.

References

https://web.archive.org/web/20090412203449/http://spia.uga.edu/news/releases/han_park_speaks_to_cnn_on_recent_events_in_north_korea/ https://web.archive.org/web/20091208091639/http://hanpark.myweb.uga.edu/biosketch.html https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/july-dec97/skorea_12-19.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8145440.stm Living people University of Minnesota alumni Year of birth missing (living people) North Korea–United States relations American University alumni Seoul National University alumni University of Georgia faculty {{US-poli-bio-stub