A diplomat is someone who represents his or her country around the world with great skill and tact. Do you think you could be a good diplomat for your country?

Could you talk with someone from another country about your own country?

What about someone from a country that your country is not friendly with? That would be quite a challenge, wouldn't it?

But that's exactly what Larry Cosgriff had to do! And thanks to his careful diplomacy, people in another country received help in a time of need.

Larry is APL's Vice President for Government Markets. That means that he helps organize shipping for the United States government around the world. When the U.S. Postal Service, the Department of Defense, State Department, or U.S. Agency for International Development need to ship things to another country, chances are they call Larry first!

One of the products Larry helps ship is food aid for people in need. The United States and the United Nations' World Food Programme donate food and send it to people who have suffered from an earthquake, a famine, a flood or a war or are in some other kind of trouble and need help. Larry enjoys this part of his job, because he likes helping others. He works with the U.S. government, the United Nations, and private relief organizations such as CARE to speed food and supplies to people who need help.

And that's how Larry became a shipping diplomat. The World Food Programme asked APL to help it ship food aid that the United States had provided from the U.S. to North Korea. (For geography buffs, North Korea's official name is "The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or DPRK for short.) The shipping part was simple enough. APL has been in the shipping business for 150 years, and can ship almost anything to almost anywhere. But, this particular shipment was quite complicated. You see, the United States and the DPRK do not have formal diplomatic relations. That is a polite way of saying that they are not exactly on friendly terms.

Since APL is a U.S. flag shipping company, would its ships be welcome in the DPRK? Would North Korea accept the food for its people even though the United States was helping to provide it?

Well, Larry was determined to find out. In March 2001, he and a group from APL traveled to Pyongyang to meet with leaders in North Korea. They were the first people from a U.S. flag shipping company ever to be invited to North Korea!

Thanks to their diplomatic skills, the government of North Korea agreed to allow APL to set up a "shuttle service" to deliver food to North Korea aid using one of its U.S. flag ships. And that means that hungry people in North Korea now got much-needed food to help them out. Larry has spent his entire career shipping products around the world. He knows a lot about ships and navigation. He never thought he'd become a diplomat but he makes a pretty good one, wouldn't you agree?