Madeleine Albright, who escaped the Nazis as a child in her native Czechoslovakia during WWII, ascended to become the first female US secretary of state and, in later years, a pop-culture feminist icon, died on Wednesday at the age of 84.

From 1993 until 1997, Madeleine Albright was the United States’ ambassador to the United Nations. President Bill Clinton’s administration. He then selected her to be the first female secretary of state, a position she held from 1997 until 2001.

Her family confirmed her death on Twitter, stating that she died of cancer.

Leaders, diplomats, and scholars recognized her as a pioneer on the global stage. “Madeleine Albright was a force.” “She defied convention and broke barriers again and again,” U.S. President Joe Biden stated.

He directed U.S. flags to be flown at half-staff at the White House and government buildings, including embassies, until March 27.

Albright came to Pyongyang in 2000 to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, becoming the highest-ranking US official to visit the secretive Communist-run country at the time, during efforts to urge North Korea to cease its nuclear weapons development, which were ultimately unsuccessful.