*EPF507 10/27/00
Transcript: Albright Sees Complicated Pyongyang-Seoul Relationship
(Secretary of State's October 26 press briefing) (680)

En route to America after visiting Pyongyang and Seoul, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright offered her impressions October 26 of the different circumstances surrounding possible reconciliation between North and South Korea, comparing it with the task of reuniting Germany at the end of the Cold War.

"I'd say that the differences between East and West Berlin were much less than between Pyongyang and Seoul," Albright said. "This is a very complicated story."

The Germans "had never fought each other" before they reunified, she pointed out.

North Korean forces attacked South Korea on June 25, 1950, starting a war that continued until the military commanders of the North Korean People's Army, the Chinese People's Volunteers, and the United Nations Command (UNC) signed an armistice agreement July 27, 1953. Neither the United States nor South Korea is a signatory to the armistice per se, although both adhere to it through the UNC.

Following is the State Department transcript of the press briefing:

(begin transcript)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
October 26, 2000

Press Briefing by Madeleine K. Albright, Secretary of State
On Plane En Route Washington, D.C. from Seoul, Republic of Korea

Kim Jong Il said I hope you'll figure out a way to send us some English teachers and if they're Korean-American, that's fine. And I think that's a very important step in terms of understanding that he needs English and that he's willing to have some Korean-Americans come to do that.

But what is interesting here is that, from my own perspective, I'd say that the differences between East and West Berlin were much less than between Pyongyang and Seoul and they've got a long -- this is a very complicated story. The Germans as they unified, you know the Germans had never fought each other.

As we changed our relationship with the Soviet Union, the truth is we'd never gone to war with the Soviet Union -- a hot war. People did not die as a result of physical fighting between us and the Soviet Union. And the Germans hadn't fought each other. So this is a very different issue and I think it's going to be a very interesting unfolding story.

You never know in any country whether you're actually going to see who they say you're going to see. So not only did I see him but I saw him at great length; much longer than I think either of us expected.

Q: Did you feel like Nixon in China?

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: No, I never feel like Nixon, anywhere.

Kim Dae Jung is a remarkable human being who had a vision and who has pursued it in a systematic way and has allowed the rest of us to build on what he has done. I said to Kim Dae Jung -- very rarely do you actually have a chance to say something like this that's usually in some speech -- but to say to somebody that I stood on the shoulders of a giant in order to be able to have the discussion with Kim Jong Il. It's his doing and he should have the credit and we can build on what he's done. The Trilateral aspect of this is very important and all of us have to do things in parallel.

Did I touch every subject? I probably touched on it. Did I clarify every subject? No. This was the first meeting that has ever taken place. I think we did a lot of business. A lot more than I thought we would do. I never expected to sign anything out of here. I never expected to walk out with any specific thing. And I actually got more than I thought which is the fact that we spoke longer about more subjects in more depth and these Einhorn talks are -- positive factor.

(end transcript)

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

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