Robert Egan

Robert "Bobby" Egan is an American restaurateur and an interlocutor between the government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the United States. He is best known for providing public diplomacy services, political consultancy, and barbecue catering to the North Korean government.

Early life and education Egan is the son of Walter Egan, a former U.S. Army bomb disposal technician who served in the Korean War and later went to work as a tar roofer. He grew up in Fairfield, New Jersey. According to Egan, he mowed lawns for drug trafficker and securities fraudster Bobby Vesco and was, at one point, approached by the FBI to become an informant.

Egan was offered the opportunity by the North Korean government to open a branch location of Cubby's in the DPRK in the mid-1990s but declined the offer.

Egan's interactions with Vietnamese officials continued through the 1980s and, in 1990, he traveled to Vietnam for the first time.

In the early 1990s, Egan was introduced to members of the North Korean delegation to the United Nations by his Vietnamese contacts. According to Egan, the North Koreans requested he help them improve their reputation and standing within the United States. Egan arranged for the diplomats to attend a New York Nets game and to tour the team's locker room. Later, during the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup, Egan catered for the DPRK women's soccer team and also attempted to secure a sponsorship for the team with a sports drink manufacturer. Egan's relationship with the DPRK delegation became increasingly cordial and he began to frequently organize hunting and fishing trips for North Korean diplomats.

Other contacts According to Egan, he was also friends with Nizar Hamdoun, the Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations under Saddam Hussein; Hamdoun and Egan's daughters reportedly took karate lesson together.

Criticism Jack Pritchard, a former staff member at the National Security Council who has been involved in negotiations in which Egan has participated, has criticized him for "inserting himself into affairs of state – in the diplomacy and negotiations".

Writing In 2010 Egan co-wrote Eating with the Enemy with Kurt Pitzer.

Personal life John McCreary, a former U.S. Senate committee staffer who once interviewed Egan, has described him as friendly and generous and said "he just makes friends easily". In an article on Egan, the Washington Post described him as "intense, garrulous and profane" and said he resembles a character from The Sopranos.