The Institute for Corean-American Studies (ICAS) will honor Christopher R. Hill, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, at its Annual Liberty Award Dinner on Dec. 4.

ICAS will award Hill for his “outstanding professional achievements, distinguished public service to the nation and people and exemplary leadership.” Hill served as ambassador to the Republic of Korea from 2004 to 2005.

The dinner will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the Capitol’s Senate Russell Office Building. Special guests include Ambassador Thomas Hubard, Ambassador James R Lilley and Stephen Solar, as well as violinist Michelle Kim and cellist Igor Zubkovsky.

Hill led the US delegation in the Six-Party Talks on the North Korean nuclear issue, in which North Korea agreed to disclose all nuclear programs and disable all facilities related to its nuclear programs. He had also served as U.S. Ambassador to Poland (2000-2004) and the Republic of Macedonia (1996-1999), and as Special Envoy to Kosovo (1998-1999).

Founded in 1973, ICAS is a non-profit organization promoting peace and prosperity through multilateral relations between the US and Asia Pacific rim nations. Its members include individuals from the academic, corporate, cultural, educational and international fields. It maintains a roster of 96 international Fellows.

Past ICAS Liberty Awardees include: Grace Chung Becker, Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights United States Department of Justice; Britton Chance, Eldridge Reeves Johnson University Professor Emeritus of Biophysics, Physical Chemistry, and Radiologic Physics, University of Pennsylvania; Elaine L. Chao, United States Secretary of Labor; Viet D. Dinh, Assistant Attorney General for Legal Policy, United States Department of Justice; Charles Kartman, Ambassador and Special Envoy for Korean Peace Talks, United States Department of State; James A. Kelly, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, United States Department of State; Jeong H. Kim, President, Carrier Networks, Data Networking Systems, Lucent Technologies; Wan J. Kim, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, United States Department of Justice, Harold Hongju Koh, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, United States Department of State.