Home  |  Web Resources  |  Free Advertising

Change Your Life!

Korean diplomatic overtures 'euphoric': Albright

News
Sports
Chat
Travel
Dhaka Today
Yellow Pages
Higher Education
Ask a Doctor
Weather
Currency Rate
Horoscope
E-Cards
B2K Poll
Comment on the Site
B2K Club

South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung, center, poses with visiting North Korean senior Cabinet councilor Jon Kum Jin, left, and South Korean Unification Minister Park Jae-kyu at the Presidential Blue House in Seoul Monday, July 31, 2000. North and South Korea agreed Monday to hold regular high-level talks on bringing peace to their divided peninsula. (AP Photo/Kim Jae-Hwan, POOL)

August 1, 2000 

TOKYO (AP) - Wrapping up an Asian trip focused on broadening relations with reclusive North Korea, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told Japan's prime minister on Monday that "euphoria" over a series of diplomatic overtures by Pyongyang should be tempered with caution.

Albright made a two-day stop in Japan after a trip to Bangkok, where she met Saturday with North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun in the highest-level talks between the two countries in a half-century.

Paying a courtesy call on Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori at his official residence Monday morning, the U.S. Secretary of State said that Washington remains concerned about the threat that North Korea's missile and nuclear programs pose to stability in Asia.

"We have to have balanced euphoria in terms of relations with North Korea," she was quoted as saying by Kazuhiko Koshikawa, the prime minister's deputy press secretary.

"There are some positive developments but we still have to be cautious."

After decades of isolation, North Korea has recently made an unprecedented series of diplomatic overtures toward the outside world, including a first-ever inter-Korean summit meeting in June.

But deep suspicions about Pyongyang's true intentions remain a stumbling block to closer relations with the U.S. and its principal Asian allies, Japan and South Korea.

In an interview published Monday by the Nihon Keizai business newspaper, Albright said the United States could support North Korea's membership in the International Monetary Fund only if regional security issues were diffused.

Membership in the 182-country international lending organization is a prerequisite to receiving financial assistance.

	U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori prior to their meeting at prime minister's official residence in Tokyo Monday morning, July 31, 2000. Albright will leave Monday for Italy for talks with Vatican officials on the Middle East peace talks at Camp David. (AP Photo/Tsugufumi Matsumoto)

The U.S. Secretary of State was also quoted by the newspaper as saying that Washington wanted to hear more details about North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's reported proposal to scrap his regime's missile development plans in exchange for help from the West with its satellite program.

Japanese and North Korean officials are set to resume next month on-again, off-again talks to establish formal diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Prime Minister Mori told Albright during their meeting Monday that Japan will pursue the negotiations "actively" and promised to maintain close policy coordination with the U.S. and South Korea, the Japanese government spokesman said.

Albright was scheduled to leave Japan for Italy on Monday afternoon for talks with Vatican officials on the Middle East peace talks at Camp David.