President to nominate experienced
diplomat as ambassador to South Korea
By Jim Lea, Osan bureau chief
President Bush will nominate Thomas C. Hubbard as the new U.S. ambassador to South
Korea, the White House announced on Thursday.
He has extensive experience in dealing with North Korea. He helped negotiate the
so-called Framework Agreement under which Pyongyang halted its old nuclear program in
return for a promise from Washington of two light-water nuclear reactor power plants.
In December 1994, he went to Pyongyang to negotiate the repatriation of U.S. Army Chief
Warrant Officer Bobby Hall.
Hall and Chief Warrant Officer David Hileman inadvertently flew their small, unarmed
Kiowa helicopter across the Demilitarized Zone into North Korean airspace on Dec. 17.
North Korean gunners immediately shot down the aircraft and Hileman died in the crash.
Hubbard brought Hall back to South Korea on Dec. 31 after signing a statement of regret
for the border violation.
Hubbard, now principal deputy assistant secretary of state for east Asia and Pacific
affairs, succeeds Stephen Bosworth, who served as ambassador during President
Clinton’s second term in office and left Korea shortly after Bush was inaugurated.
In the interim, Evans Revere has served as embassy charge d’ affaires.
The Senate must confirm Hubbard before he takes office.
Originally from Tennessee and a graduate of the University of Alabama, he has served in
various posts in his 36-year diplomatic career, including simultaneously as ambassador to
the Republic of the Philippines and the Republic of Palau from 1996 to last year.
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