DATE=7/21/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=G8 - CLINTON-PUTIN (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-264655
BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST
DATELINE=OKINAWA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: U-S officials at the G-Eight summit in Okinawa
are skeptical about a reported North Korean offer to
scrap its ballistic missile program in exchange for
outside help in launching satellites. President
Clinton discussed the issue in a bilateral meeting
Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who came
to Okinawa after talks in Pyongyang with North Korean
President Kim Jong-Il. V-O-A's David Gollust reports
from Okinawa.
TEXT: A senior administration official says the
United States will seek direct clarification of the
reported North Korean offer with Pyongyang. But he
dismisses as a "very dangerous idea" the notion that
other countries might give North Korea booster rockets
to launch satellites from its own territory.
In an announcement Wednesday that capped the first-
ever visit by a Russian president to North Korea, Mr.
Putin said Pyongyang would be willing to halt its
missile program in exchange for access to space launch
technology.
Mr. Putin strongly opposes the U-S anti-ballistic
missile program that is in part a response to North
Korea's missile efforts. His visit to Pyongyang was
part of a diplomatic offensive that also included a
stop in Beijing and a joint statement with Chinese
President Jiang Zemin condemning the U-S program.
The senior U-S official who briefed reporters said
President Clinton and Mr. Putin discussed the Russian
leader's Pyongyang visit in some detail during their
75-minute meeting here. He said the State
Department's top non-proliferation official, Assistant
Secretary Robert Einhorn, will soon meet North Korean
officials to discuss the purported offer.
He stressed that the United States would only be
interested in a scenario under which North Korea would
truly give up -- or as he put it "unplug" -- its
missile program, and that any satellites developed by
that country would have to launched outside of North
Korean territory.
The senior official said the U-S anti-missile effort
and Russian opposition to it had been thoroughly
covered in the Clinton-Putin meeting in Moscow last
month, and that their meeting here focused more on
areas of strategic cooperation between the two powers.
They issued a joint statement stressing, among other
things, their commitment to seeking deeper cuts in
strategic nuclear weapons and to looking for new ways
to cooperate in controlling the spread of missiles and
missile technology.
In that regard, the senior U-S official said the two
leaders had a "highly focused" discussion on what he
said was continuing aid by Russian "entities" to
Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
He also said the U-S side urged Russia to press the
Yugoslav government of Slobodan Milosevic to show
restraint with regard to Montenegro -- saying there
must be no repeat of the crackdown by Serb forces two
years ago in Kosovo. (Signed)
NEB/DAG/JP
21-Jul-2000 09:54 AM LOC (21-Jul-2000 1354 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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