10 October 2000 Clinton Meets with North Korea's Senior Military Official President Clinton met for some forty minutes in the Oval Office October 10 with Marshal Cho Myong-nok, the first vice chairman of the National Defense Commission of North Korea, North Korea's senior military official. The two "had a very positive, direct and warm meeting this morning," Wendy Sherman, U.S. North Korea policy coordinator and counselor to the Secretary of State, told reporters at a White House briefing on the historic meeting. President Clinton and Vice Marshal Cho "both agreed that the inter-Korean summit has created an opportunity for this historic meeting here today, and spent some time talking about the importance of that inter-Korean dialogue," she said. Vice Marshal Cho brought a letter to Clinton from North Korea's leader Kim Chong-il, that describes "the important point we are in, in our relationship with each other, and the hope that we would improve it further." The vice marshal conveyed to the President, on behalf of Chairman Kim Jong Il, "some ideas on how to build on the progress that we have made in our bilateral relationship," Sherman said. The issues discussed, Sherman said, ranged "from soldiers to missiles, to terrorism, to what we have built on in the past in terms of our bilateral relationship, our presence, our nuclear concerns, the whole range." The issues, she added, were dealt with "in a summary, introductory fashion to really start off the meetings and the discussions we're going to have over the next two days in a very positive way." Sherman pointed out that "we are in the early stages of this visit." She noted that the vice marshal and his delegation "will have further meetings and discussions today.... The Secretary will host a dinner on the eighth floor of the State Department today, then she will hold a bilateral meeting tomorrow morning to discuss the progress that we have made today and to begin to reflect on some of the ideas that the vice marshal brought with him today." (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov) Return to the Washington File