Foreign Minister Song Min-soon, on behalf of the President of the Republic of Korea Roh Moo-hyun, awarded the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill with the ‘Order of Diplomatic Service Merit Gwanghwa Medal’ of the Government of the Republic of Korea on February 20. It is to reward Mr. Hill for his contributions to the development of Korea-U.S. relations and to the progress of the resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue.

Mr. Christopher Hill served as US　Ambassador to Korea from August 2004 to April 2005, and was named as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs in April 2005. Since then, he has served as the Head of the U.S. delegation to the Six-Party Talks for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula involving Korea, the DPRK, China, Japan, Russia and the US.