Britain has named a female career diplomat as its next ambassador to North Korea, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said Tuesday.
The office said Karen Wolstenholme has been appointed as its envoy to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which is the official name of the communist country. She is to succeed London's current ambassador to Pyongyang Peter Hughes in September 2011.
Wolstenholme joined the foreign office in 1980 and was previously posted to Moscow, Brussels and Wellington.
She headed various regional teams from 2003 before being named First Secretary, Deputy UK Permanent Representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons based in The Hague in 2007.