Associated Press
August 19, 2009

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - Gov. Bill Richardson met
Wednesday with a special envoy of the Dalai Lama.

Richardson, a former U.N. ambassador, hosted a luncheon in honor of Lodi Gyari.

A gubernatorial spokesman says the event was
planned before a North Korean diplomatic
delegation requested to meet with Richardson.

Richardson and North Korean diplomats talked in
the morning, broke for lunch at separate
locations and then met again in the afternoon at the governor's mansion.

Gyari has served as an envoy in talks with China
on Tibetan attempts to gain some form of
autonomy. China has governed Tibet since the 1950s.

The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual
leader, fled to India in 1959 after a failed Tibetan uprising.