The U.S. State Department said Wednesday that New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson will visit North Korea next week on a private mission, amid heightening tensions on the Korean Peninsula after the North's shelling of a South Korean island and revelation of a uranium enrichment program, Yonhap News agency reported.
"We understand he has confirmed that he is going to North Korea," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said. "It's a private visit. He will be not carrying any particular message from the United States government."
Richardson successfully negotiated the release of two American citizens held in North Korea in the 1990s, and most recently toured the reclusive communist state in 2007 to resume operations to excavate the remains of U.S. soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War.