State Department Noon Briefing, October 18, 2000
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE DAILY PRESS BRIEFING WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2000 1:45 P.M. (ON THE RECORD UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED) QUESTION: Do you have anything on North Korea and the talks there with US officials? MR. REEKER: I don't have anything more specific to add in terms of when the Secretary's trip may take place. With the Secretary en route right now from Saudi Arabia, expected to land in Shannon, Ireland, for refueling in about an hour, and returning to Washington this evening, we may then get some more information this evening and be able to work with you on that. But I just don't have anything in addition to what we talked about -- a few of us earlier in the week -- that there is an advance team that has traveled to Pyongyang in order to prepare for the Secretary's planned visit there. It is a group of American officials that arrived on Tuesday, crossing the Demilitarized Zone from South Korea into North Korea. And we are very pleased, I must add, with North Korea's cooperation in facilitating this travel. That team is being led by our Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Thomas Hubbard. And, as I said, we just don't have any firm announcement yet on travel times. Q: All right. You don't have the date, but in light of the intense press interest, did the North Koreans say anything to the American team about how many Americans -- MR. REEKER: I don't have those readouts yet, George. I know we are working with them on everybody from press logistics, communications obviously, to make this visit run smoothly. Obviously that includes our usual practice of working on press in terms of covering the visit and traveling with us, as necessary. So we will just get you that as soon as we do have it. Q: Okay. MR. REEKER: Anything else on North Korea? Q: So the Secretary's trip to Pyongyang, the United States is going to have a trilateral meeting with Japan and Korea? MR. REEKER: Again, I don't have anything to announce in terms of the specifics of the travel. As you know, we have kept in very close touch with our allies, Japan and the Republic of Korea, throughout this process. The so-called TCOG arrangement where we get together for trilateral meetings is something we have discussed often from here, and obviously we will continue to be in very close touch with both Japan and the Republic of Korea as we prepare for this visit, and certainly after the visit. I just don't have anything specific to give you in terms of next planned meetings. Q: Phil, do you know if you're going to be able to take a press charter in addition to a plane, or -- MR. REEKER: I have no information on that. In terms of the logistics and stuff, we can try to discuss it a little bit afterwards, but there is a team there working on that with the North Koreans, and obviously a lot of the key people who work on arranging this stuff are traveling with the Secretary now. So we will have to wait until we get some more details on that. Q: Yes, on the Middle East. Are we finished on North Korea? (The briefing was concluded at 2:35 p.m.)
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