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U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing

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QUESTION: North Korea? Is there anything new you can tell us about what exactly is going on there, in terms of policy reviews? I know there's this meeting coming up on - soon - Friday, is it?

QUESTION: Friday.

MR. RUBIN: Let me give you the North Korea run-down. Ambassador Kartman met today in Beijing with North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan to apprise him of the results of the May 20-24 visit to the Kumchang-ni construction site per an earlier agreement. Ambassador Kartman's discussions will continue tomorrow. His talks will also cover matters related to the implementation of the agreed framework, and the upcoming Four Party Talks, plenary, in Geneva in early August. I don't have any further details for you at this point.

These US-North Korea bilateral talks were planned prior to the military confrontation between South and North Korea. Beijing was proposed as the site for the meeting by the North Korean side as a matter of convenience. Ambassador Kartman has already briefed congressional members on the outcome of the visit to the Kumchang-ni site. Our South Korean and Japanese allies have also been briefed. We expect to issue something publicly on the US assessment in a few days.

The next visit to the Kumchang-ni site, per the agreement negotiated in March, will be in May 2000. We expect the statement of our view to basically follow the following lines. According to the team's report, the underground site at Kumchang-ni is an extensive, empty tunnel complex. A fuller technical analysis was conducted to determine as best we can what the site might have been intended for. While suspicions remain at present, there is still nothing that leads to the conclusion that there is a violation of the agreed framework. We expect to provide further details shortly.

We successfully negotiated for multiple access to the site, precisely in anticipation of an outcome such as this one where we would want to be able to ensure future visits so that we could fully remove our suspicions about the intended use of the site. So we will return next May for another visit, per our agreement with North Korea, and for subsequent visits to remove fully our suspicions.

QUESTION: This statement - could we expect that to come on Friday with these meetings with the --

MR. RUBIN: They're not linked to the three-way consultations. It's not linked to that. It's just part of the consultation process with the Hill.

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(The briefing concluded at 1:15 P.M.)

[end of document]