Jimmy Carter is planning a trip to North Korea

George Stephanopoulos is anchor of ABC's "Good Morning America." He is also the network's chief political correspondent, reporting on political and policy stories for all ABC News broadcasts and platforms.

“We have not had any contact with him other than being informed about the trip. And he's clearly -- or he's traveling in a private capacity,” State Dept spokesman Mark Toner said, adding that he is not carrying a message from the Obama administration and doesn’t have an official delegation with him.

Carter traveled to Pyongyang in August 2010 to retrieve an American citizen, Aijalon Mahli Gomes, who had been sentenced to 8 years in prison for entering North Korea illegally from China that January.

In October of 2010 Carter penned an editorial urging more engagement with North Korea. But since his visit that August, the isolated country has revealed its advanced highly enriched uranium program.

In 2009, former President Bill Clinton traveled to North Korea to lobby (successfully) for the release of the American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee.

No message from BHO. Private trip. Carter is simply visiting the Dem's pal Kim, the dictator of NK. BS. The American people will get the stinky end of the stick from the libs somehow. Clinton SofS Madeline Albright signed treaties with NK in the 90s which allowed their nuclear capability to increase exponentially. These authoritarian radicals stick together.