Transcript: Albright October 23 Toast at Kim Jong Il Dinner (Flashback 2000)

Transcript: Albright October 23 Toast at Kim Jong Il Dinner (Process of engagement requires elimination of threats)

The "fundamental improvement" in relations between the United States and North Korea represented in part by her visit to Pyongyang could lead to "reconciliation and reunification" of the Korean Peninsula, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told Chairman Kim Jong Il in an October 23 dinner the North Korean leader hosted for Albright.

The process of engagement and improving relations between the United States and North Korea, Albright said, could also bring about "more normal and prosperous relations" between Pyongyang and others governments in "the region and the world."

Both the United States and North Korea, Albright said, "must meet our responsibilities to eliminate threats, reduce tension, build confidence, and expand ties."

Both sides, she added, "must each do our part if the Cold War is truly to end and along with it the divisions that have caused such suffering to the people of Korea."

Following is the transcript of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's toast at the October 23 dinner in Pyongyang:

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Office of the Spokesman (Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea)

Toast By Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright At Dinner Hosted by Chairman Kim Jong Il Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Chairman Kim Jong Il, Vice Marshal Jo, distinguished leaders of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on behalf of the United States of America, I want to thank you for your kindness and hospitality.

Vice Marshal Jo, we really enjoyed your visit earlier this month to Washington and now you have made us feel very welcome, and we appreciate it very much.

The exchange of letters and greetings between Chairman Kim Jong Il and President Clinton, the exchange of visits by senior officials from our respective lands, and our recent joint communique could not have been imagined only a few years ago. We do not move as rapidly as the performers in tonight's wonderful performance, but step by step we are moving toward a fundamental improvement in our relationship. This will benefit all the people of Korea and of the United States. I believe that our meetings during these two days will help us to move further down the road of cooperation. Mr. Chairman, the process in which we are now engaged is a process that your father President Kim Il-sung helped to begin. It can lead to reconciliation and reunification of the Peninsula and to more normal and prosperous relations between your government and others in the region and the world.

This process will succeed if we all profit from the lessons of the past and understand that confrontation is not the path to progress in this new era. We each must meet our responsibilities to eliminate threats, reduce tension, build confidence, and expand ties. We each must strive to open new avenues of communication, commerce and contacts. We must each do our part if the Cold War is truly to end and along with it the divisions that have caused such suffering to the people of Korea.

There is a great distance between our two lands, but as we are starting to discover through our visits, distance is no barrier to closer ties. The United States understands that differences developed over many decades are real and cannot be eliminated overnight. We must be pragmatic and recognize that the road to fully normal relations remains uphill.

But America's symbol is the eagle, a bird that soars. And Korea's pride is its mountains, which scrape the sky. There is no obstacle we cannot overcome if we make the strategic decision to do so together.

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice Marshal, and our other distinguished hosts, on behalf of my delegation, I want to thank you again for your hospitality.

I look forward to tomorrow's meetings and events. And I invite you to join me in a toast to the health of the people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and to the growth of friendship between you and the people of the United States.

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

Q: What kind of problems in -- I understand one of the main parts of the NIE will be whether or not North Korea, you still feel that North Korea would be able to send a long-range missile to the United States by 2005. Has this Putin announcement that the North Koreans are ready to give up their missile program, has that created problems, created questions about this whole thing?

Bacon: Well, first of all, if North Korea takes steps to stop work on developing or building long-range missiles, that does not create problems for us, that is good. Our goal is to get North Korea to stop work on building intercontinental ballistic range missiles and to stop exporting this technology to other countries.

I don't know exactly what the Putin-Kim Jong Il agreement involves. President Putin and Kim Jong Il made statements in Korea. They talked in terms of satellite launch. They didn't talk in terms of stopping work on ICBM missile programs. I think we need to seek more details about what they meant.

In principle, we agree with the strategy of using existing space powers to launch satellites for other countries that want satellite so that they do not have to go through the cost and the time of developing their own space-launch capability. We do think that the development of space-launch capability is frequently a way to move toward ICBM capability, and so we are in favor of helping countries get into space without developing that capability. We would be willing to explore further with North Korea ways to help them meet their space needs, short of having them develop their own missile program.

Q: Can we take it that the United States would oppose any country, such as Russia, providing missiles or providing rockets on which to launch those satellites to North Korea, as opposed to launching them from Russia, because of reverse technology --

Bacon: Well, we think that providing technology to North Korea would be a type of technology transfer that would lead to -- possibly lead to proliferation. So in principle, we'd be opposed to that.

But I want to be clear, we don't know the details of the discussions between President Putin and Chairman Kim and, therefore, we're seeking clarification from the Russians and from others on this. We don't know whether we'll get that clarification or not.

Defenselink.mil 2000 press conference

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