International Reporting Project Visits North Korea on Gatekeepers’ Trip

Rare 2-day journey to the North a highlight of 10-day trip

Korea 2007

By John Schidlovsky

June 10, 2009

Published for the International Reporting Project

Twelve senior U.S. editors and producers visited North Korea in November as part of the 10-day IRP Gatekeeper Editors trip to the Korean peninsula. To download and view a copy of the trip's report, click here.

The Gatekeepers' visit to Korea coincided with a trip to North Korea by a U.S. technical team that arrived to dismantle North Korea's nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. The IRP Gatekeepers spent most of their trip in South Korea, where they interviewed a wide cross-section of leaders in government, politics, business, health, academics, media and other walks of life.

Four of the editors discussed their trip at a forum on November 29, cosponsored by IRP and the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins SAIS.

Editors selected for the Korea trip, which took place on November 2-14, 2007, are:

Rob Davila, world news editor, The Seattle Times
Will Englund, associate editorial page editor, The Baltimore Sun
Paul Feldman, assistant foreign editor, Los Angeles Times
Morgan Holm, vice president, news & public affairs, Oregon Public Broadcasting
Ray Locker, national security editor, USA Today
Mark Melnicoe, national editor, Sacramento Bee
Michael Mosettig, senior producer, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
Lisa Mullins, anchor/senior producer, PRI/BBC's “The World”
Patrick Pexton, deputy editor, The National Journal
Madhulika Sikka, senior supervising producer, NPR “Morning Edition”
Randall Smith, deputy managing editor, The Kansas City Star
Elizabeth Sullivan, associate editor, editorial pages, The Plain Dealer