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[EXCERPTS]: ALBRIGHT ON 3/6 NEWSHOUR WITH JIM LEHRER
(NOTE: 3/7/97 -- Permission obtained covering republication/translation of the text by USIS/press outside the U.S. On title page carry: From The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, March 6, 1997, co-produced by MACNEIL/LEHRER PRODUCTIONS and WWETA in association with WNET. Copyright (c) by MacNeil-Lehrer Productions.)

MR. LEHRER: On the Koreas -- there was a meeting yesterday in New York, the Koreas, both North and South and the United States. How would you describe the outcome?

SEC. ALBRIGHT: Well, I think it was an important beginning. We have wanted for some time to get the Koreas talking to each other. There is a dialogue that is necessary here in order to move for a reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula. There's never been an armistice. And --

MR. LEHRER: After 44 years --

SEC. ALBRIGHT: Exactly. I was just up at the DMZ, kind of the last outpost of the Cold War, and it is important for this dialogue to take place. This is really a talk about getting four-power talks -- four-party talks going -- that is, China, North Korea, the U.S. and South Korea. So it's a beginning. And we consider it a useful beginning.

MR. LEHRER: Under a dream scenario, what happens next?

SEC. ALBRIGHT: Well, they -- the four parties would get together and begin to talk more about how to move the process forward. But this is an important step, and actually in the end the two parties, the two Koreas, have to try to come to agreement.

MR. LEHRER: What -- how would you characterize that situation now -- just in terms of danger -- not only to each other in Korea, but elsewhere in that part of the world? I mean, the possibility of conflict between North and South Korea as we sit here now?

SEC. ALBRIGHT: Well, I think when you go to the DMZ, and you see our forces up there, and you see the fact that this is kind of the vestige of the Cold War, you know how important it is to get this resolved.

Clearly there is a sense -- in North Korea there is hunger. We have worked very hard now through a framework agreement to limit their -- or to freeze their whole nuclear weapons, their whole nuclear capability. I think that we are working very hard to make sure that it is not an unstable situation. But there is such a difference between a prosperous South Korea and a North Korea where they are very hungry.

MR. LEHRER: Where does this Korea problem come on your list of priorities? I've been reading that if Madeleine Albright said, "I'm going to get this thing resolved," it could probably get resolved. Do you feel that way?

SEC. ALBRIGHT: Well, there are lots of problems out there, and this is very high up there. I mean, I think our issue here is we want a stable situation. We do not want to face the problem -- we have 37,000 American forces there. We care a great deal about the security and stability of the Korean Peninsula and Asia. Frankly, the reason that I also went to Asia as well as Europe was because we have equal concerns and interests and challenges in both regions.