At Work Around the World

North Korea

In 1994, President Carter negotiated terms for the first dialogue in 40 years between the United States and North Korea.


Building Hope

North Korea, a historically isolated communist nation, began its nuclear energy and weapons program in the early 1990s, raising concerns among U.S. government officials. In 1994, hostilities between the United States and North Korea escalated to the brink of engagement. As a last-resort effort to preserve the peace, U.S. President William Clinton sent former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to North Korea for negotiations. The Carter Center continues President Carter's example to prevent and resolve conflict through dialogue and negotiation.


Fighting Disease

Increasing Food Production

In April 1999, the Center joined several relief and development agencies to undertake a pilot initiative to boost potato production and improve food security in North Korea. The group purchased 1,000 metric tons of potato seed and oversaw its planting in May on farms in a southeastern North Korean province. Agencies included Adventist Development and Relief, Amigos Internacionales, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Church World Service, Korean American Sharing Movement, and Mercy Corps International.

In addition, 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 and was targeted to the most needy areas of the country. This marked the first time the American government provided humanitarian assistance directly to U.S. aid agencies for distribution in North Korea.


Waging Peace

Mediating Conflict

In June 1994, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn 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. President and Mrs. Carter had been invited by then President Kim Il Sung to visit North Korea and went as representatives of The Carter Center with the hope of defusing a serious issue related to North Korea's nuclear program.

The international climate at the time of the Carters' visit was growing increasingly heated, as fears mounted in the United States and other countries that North Korea was developing a nuclear arsenal. After the North Koreans had withdrawn their membership in the International Atomic Energy Agency and threatened to expel the IAEA's inspectors, the United States began pushing for U.N. sanctions.

Following two days of talks with President Carter, President Kim agreed to freeze North Korea's nuclear program in exchange for the resumption of a dialogue with the United States. That breakthrough led to the first dialogue between the United States and North Korea in 40 years. Subsequent talks between the two countries resulted in two agreements, reached in October 1994 and June 1995, in which North Korea agreed to neither restart its nuclear reactor nor reprocess the plant's spent fuel. Construction was halted on two additional plants, and all three will be replaced with safer light-water reactors, which cannot produce weapons-grade materials.


Read more about the Carter Center's Conflict Resolution Program.


Read more about North Korea:

Carter Issues Warning on North Korea Standoff
New York Times article, Sept. 5, 2003

U.S.-North Korea War Seems 'Strong Possibility'
Op-Ed by Jimmy Carter, Sept. 2, 2003,
USA Today


Updated May 2006