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Prospects Cloudy for Albright-DPRK Meeting
The United States said on Monday that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright would stay at the Middle East summit near Washington until it ends, clouding prospects for an unprecedented meeting with Democratic People's Republic Korea's foreign minister in Bangkok.
"She's here for as long as it takes. She's here for the duration," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters during marathon talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders overseen by Albright and President Bill Clinton.
Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Sunday that the first meeting between foreign ministers of the two countries would take place Wednesday, ahead of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) regional forum.
But US officials, uncertain of how long the Camp David summit will last, have declined to confirm a meeting with Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun was planned. "We don't have anything to announce," Boucher said.
"The Secretary would like to attend (the ASEAN meeting) but we are not in a position to announce anything at this point ... because she is fully involved in the Middle East peace process," he added.
On Sunday White House National Security Council spokesman P.J. Crowley said that, assuming Albright did go to Thailand, "I do believe she is scheduled to meet with her DPRK counterpart."
Albright has played a pivotal role in the effort to achieve a final Arab-Israeli peace accord. No deadline has been set ending the summit, which is attended by Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
Albright would have to leave some time on Tuesday, allowing time for travel and the time zone difference, to make it for a meeting in Thailand on Wednesday.
Washington has been trying to arrange a senior level meeting with DPRK in recent months as part of a gradual improvement in relations with DPRK in the last decade.
The two countries held bilateral talks in Berlin last week in preparation for the ASEAN meetings, which Washington understood DPRK would be attending, Boucher said.
The United States has made improvement of ties with DPRK a key foreign policy priority, working to rein in its nuclear weapons development and its long-range missiles programme, seen as a potential threat to US targets.
It has lifted economic sanctions on the impoverished country this year after concessions from Pyongyang. A meeting between Albright and Paek would help the isolated country's emergence into the international community.
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