John Lewis leads delegation to North Korea

John W. Lewis, director of the CISAC Project on Peace and Cooperation in the Asian-Pacific Region, led a private delegation of American experts and officials to North Korea and the country's nuclear weapons facility in Yongbyon. The visit took place January 6-10, 2004, and was the first visit by outsiders to that country's nuclear facilities since North Korea expelled international inspectors a year ago.

Accompanying Lewis were the former director of Los Alamos National Laboratory Sigfried Hecker, former State Department official Jack Pritchard, and two staffers from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Frank Jannuzi and Keith Luse.

Lewis and the others briefed U.S. government officials upon their return. Hecker, a nuclear weapons expert, testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on January 21 and 22 about their visit to the Nuclear Scientific Research Center in Yongbyon.

The visit generated intensive interest from the media.