U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE DAILY PRESS BRIEFING Briefer: Richard Boucher, Spokesman THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 2000, 12:55 P.M. (ON THE RECORD UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED) QUESTION: Can we go back to North Korea and the Moscow trip? MR. BOUCHER: Anywhere. QUESTION: How much does this have to do - the trip to Moscow - have to do with Putin's meeting with Kim Jong-il and his supposed offer of scrapping the missile program in exchange for money and space satellites? MR. BOUCHER: That's part of it. They will discuss a whole range of issues, certainly the international community's nonproliferation goals and then they want to follow up on the discussions between Kim Jong-il and President Putin on the missile issues. We have talked with Russia on numerous occasions about the Korean Peninsula, and like us, Russia has encouraged the engagement on the peninsula. We have also strongly encouraged concrete action by North Korea to achieve progress in addressing all these concerns of the international community, both on the missile export program and on its indigenous missile programs. So those are going to be subjects that we will discuss with the Russians as well. QUESTION: Can I follow up? Do you think that, apparently during the meeting, he made this offer to Putin to scrap the missile program, and then later said to South Korean journalists that he was just kidding. How serious do you think this offer is, and how willing would the United States be to participate in a program where they would fund this kind of thing and fund space satellites for North Korea? MR. BOUCHER: Well, we all want to know more about it. And since the Russians have had the direct discussions with North Koreans on this, we are going to want to talk to the Russians about it, and see what they know, and how they evaluate it. Certainly, it is in the interest of the international community, and the international community has made quite clear they want to see the North Korean missile programs curbed. The Russians share that desire, and we will be talking to them about how to do it as well as talking to our allies. QUESTION: Richard, I mean, do you have any reason to believe that there has been further communication between the North Koreans and the Russians on this subject since President Putin and President Clinton discussed it in Okinawa? MR. BOUCHER: I can't remember the various reports. But there certainly - QUESTION: There hasn't been any information about it from any - well, I mean, that's come out publicly since the original thing, except for the idea that Kim says that he was joking. I mean, is there some reason that you think that the Russians have more information than they did before? MR. BOUCHER: I think that is one of the questions we will be asking them and talking to them about and see if they can go into more detail on their understanding or whether they've gotten any subsequent information. QUESTION: This might be an historical question but what did the North Koreans promise when we originally agreed to give them crude oil and build a nuclear power plant way back when? I mean, isn't this the same sort of thing? MR. BOUCHER: I would be glad to give you thousands of pages of documents on that subject. QUESTION: But I mean, are they similar, is what I'm asking about. MR. BOUCHER: Well, we don't know exactly what this offer is that they have made to Putin. We're still following up with the Russians. The Russians have been following up, we think, with the North Koreans to find out more about it. (The briefing was concluded at 1:35 p.m.)
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