Clinton 'Hopeful' Over Crisis In Korea

WASHINGTON -- President Bill Clinton said Monday there are "hopeful signs" a clash over North Korea's nuclear program can be averted, but cautioned that Pyongyang's offer to freeze the program, allow international inspectors to stay and hold an unprecedented summit with South Korea had to be verified. It was Clinton's first public comment on the situation since former President Jimmy Carter returned from a private visit to North Korea with a set of understandings designed to ease suspicions about the North's nuclear ambitions. Carter said after briefing White House aides Sunday that he thought the crisis was over, but Clinton was clearly more wary. "There are some hopeful signs ... but the critical question is: Are they willing to freeze this nuclear program?" the president said in an interview on NBC's Today show. "If it's going to be frozen, then clearly that is grounds for talking, but we have to know what the facts are so we'll be attempting to determine that." While Washington officials sought to verify Pyongyang's proposals, however, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Madeleine Albright pressed ahead Monday with consultations on a sanctions resolution, discussing the text with her Russian counterpart, Yuly Vorontsov. Returning Sunday from a private visit to North and South Korea, Carter briefed top Clinton administration officials and spoke with Clinton by telephone about his talks in Pyongyang with President Kim Il-sung. Assistant Secretary of State Robert Gallucci said after Carter's White House visit that he had reported on the interest of the North Korean leadership in freezing all activity that produces fuel for nuclear weapons and allowing continued international monitoring of its nuclear facilities. Kim was also prepared to hold a summit with South Korean President Kim Young Sam, Carter said. In Seoul on Monday, South Korean Prime Minister Lee Yung-dug asked North Korea for talks next week to discuss plans for a first-ever meeting between their presidents. North Korea in turn wants a resumption of talks with the United States and others on establishing normal diplomatic and economic relations, as well as an immediate end to U.S. efforts to bring international sanctions to bear on Pyongyang over the nuclear issue. Carter made clear he thought the U.S. sanctions effort should be dropped and said he thought "the crisis is over." Clinton stopped well short of endorsing that statement but echoed Gallucci's view that Carter's visit might have produced a diplomatic opening. "If North Korea wishes to talk and is willing to freeze their nuclear program, that is, not continue the reprocessing and refueling while they talk, then that would be a step forward," Clinton said. He said North Korea's stated willingness to let two International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors remain at their posts at the Yongbyon nuclear complex and to keep monitoring equipment in good working order would give the West the capacity "to evaluate whether in fact the nuclear program has been frozen." Clinton also backed further away from the administration's previous demand that the North account for spent fuel removed from the Yongbyon reactor in 1989. Experts believe it could have produced enough plutonium for one or two nuclear bombs. "I think what we have to do is to look to the present and the future, and say we will evaluate words in terms of actions," he said. Many analysts have suggested that the administration can do little about the 1989 diversion, and ought to concentrate on keeping North Korea from expanding its suspected arsenal. U.S. officials said efforts to confirm the understandings Carter felt he had obtained from Pyongyang would begin Monday in informal contacts with North Korean diplomats at the United Nations in New York.