Stephen W. Bosworth became the special representative for North Korea policy in February 2009, reporting to the secretary of state and the president. Ambassador Bosworth continues to serve as dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Prior to his appointment at The Fletcher School in February 2001, he served as the United States ambassador to the Republic of Korea from November 1997 to February 2001. From 1995 through 1997, Ambassador Bosworth was the executive director of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO). Before joining KEDO, he served seven years as president of the United States–Japan Foundation, a private American grant-making institution. He also taught international relations as an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs from 1990 to 1994. In 1993, he was the Sol Linowitz Visiting Professor at Hamilton College. He has co-authored several studies on public policy issues for the Carnegie Endowment and the Century Fund, and in 2006 he co-authored Chasing the Sun, Rethinking East Asian Policy.

Ambassador Bosworth has had an extensive career in the United States Foreign Service, including service as ambassador to Tunisia from 1979 to 1981 and ambassador to the Philippines from 1984 to 1987. He also served in a number of senior positions in the Department of State, including director of policy planning, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs, and deputy assistant secretary for economic affairs. Ambassador Bosworth is the recipient of several awards, including the American Academy of Diplomacy’s Diplomat of the Year Award in 1987, the Department of State’s Distinguished Service Award in 1976 and 1986, and the Department of Energy’s Distinguished Service Award in 1979. In 2005, the government of Japan presented him with the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star.