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                            THE WHITE HOUSE
                     Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                   October 24, 2000
                             PRESS BRIEFING
                                   BY
                              JAKE SIEWERT
                    The James S. Brady Briefing Room
12:27 P.M. EDT
     Q    Jake, can you tell us what North Korea pledged to do, pledged
not to fire - did they pledge not to fire missiles at the United
States?  And if so, how is that different from the previously-announced
freeze?
     MR. SIEWERT:  I've seen those reports.  We will wait for a more
thorough briefing from the Secretary of State when she returns before we
comment on those.  She did have a full and thorough discussion of a wide
range of issues, including missile launches, and as you know, she's
still in Pyongyang and will be meeting with her counterparts in Seoul
tomorrow from Japan and South Korea.  After those consultations, she'll
be traveling back to the United States and giving the President a fuller
update.  She has been in touch with the National Security Adviser, and
we obviously have National Security Council staff on that trip.
     So we've been getting regular updates, but I think before we make
any decisions or characterize where we are, I think we want to wait and
hear directly from her when she returns.
     Q    But we know you have been briefed on whatever has been said
about missile launches.
     MR. SIEWERT:  As I said, I think before we characterize those, that
any of the substance of those discussions, we want to give the President
a chance to get fully briefed before we brief the media.
     Q    Are you any clearer on Chairman Kim's proposal?  I mean, after
Putin met with Chairman Kim, we seem to be unclear what he was offering.
     MR. SIEWERT:  Obviously, these meetings were designed to provide a
greater deal of clarity to the offer that he made to Putin.  That was
one of the purposes of her going.  So she obviously had a discussion on
that.  As I said, it was a full and thorough discussion of the missile
issue and other issues.  She will report back to the President, and at
that point we may be able to provide a little bit more detail on that.
     But that was one of the reasons that she undertook this trip - to
find out a little bit more, to hear firsthand from the North Koreans
what it was that they proposed to do.
                           END 12:55 P.M. EDT