|
|
Change Your Life! |
Albright's historic meeting with N Korea's FM |
|
News
|
|
|
July 30, 2000
BANGKOK (AP) - U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Saturday that her historic meeting with North Korea's foreign minister should help pull the communist state out of international isolation. Albright held talks with Paek Nam Sun at Asia's largest security forum Friday, a day after North Korea joined, in the highest-level meeting between the United States and North Korea in a half-century of hostility. Though Paek divulged no details about North Korea's reported offers to Russia's president to curb its missile program, the talks were described as friendly and went nearly an hour beyond their allotted time. "I think North Korea being part of the system is important in bringing it out of its isolation," Albright told reporters Saturday before leaving Thailand for Japan. She returns to Washington on Monday. U.S. officials indicated that the issues of missiles and North Korea's desire for an end to economic sanctions and removal from a list of countries sponsoring terrorism would be discussed in the future. Foreign ministers from around the Pacific Rim seized the chance to widen Pyongyang's opening to the world after June's historic summit between the leaders of North and South Korea. Canada and New Zealand agreed to normalize relations with the long-reclusive state. Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan told a news conference closing the forum that momentum was being built for more contacts with North Korea. "Countries which used to have frosty relations with North Korea have come together and broken the icy curtain between them," Surin said. "`Many possibilities and potentials are now open." Separately, Albright assured Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai that the United States is not supporting ethnic rebels in neighboring Laos who have recently stepped up their insurgency, Thai government spokesman Akapol Sorasuchart said. The Hmong rebels have roots in the anti-communist insurgency backed by the Central Intelligence Agency in the Vietnam War. Laos has accused Hmong exiles in the United States of supporting them. Albright told Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab of Indonesia that the United States supported Indonesian unity and the difficult transition to democracy. Indonesia has been swept by communal violence in the Maluku islands and a separatist rebellion the province of Aceh, both undermining the fragile democratic government of President Abdurrahman Wahid. East Timor, which voted for independence from Indonesia last year, suffered the loss of its first U.N. peacekeeper in combat this week when a New Zealand soldier was killed by anti-independence militias staging a raid from Indonesian-ruled West Timor. New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff called for the soldier's killers to be arrested and extradited. Goff also urged Indonesia to crack down on the militants and allow East Timorese refugees to return home. The refugee camps have become hotbeds of militia activity. In the Malukus, where Islamic extremists from other parts of Indonesia have traveled to join what the see as a holy war against Christians, Shihab "talked about the importance of trying to get some of the troublemakers out of there," Albright said. "We said we'd look at how the international community could be of assistance," she said. Albright told Shihab that she hoped to visit Indonesia later this year. She and Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh discussed Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's planned visit to Washington in December, where he will address a joint session of Congress. U.S. officials refused to comment on reports that Albright and Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan agreed Friday that a U.S.-China non-proliferation meeting in Hawaii in August should take up the controversy of proposed U.S. missile shields. The two shields, one to defend U.S. territory and another to protect U.S. troops in South Korea and Japan, have been widely criticized by U.S. allies and adversaries as a threat to stability and arms control treaties. China fears that the shield over Japan and Korea could be extended over Taiwan, which Beijing views as a renegade province. U.S. pledges to protect Taiwan are seen as interference in China's internal affairs. |