N. Korean team arrives to meet Clinton

North Korean special envoy Jo Myong-Rok, the first vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, arrived in Washington on Monday evening to start a series of meetings with President Bill Clinton and other senior U.S. officials.

At the Mayflower Hotel in Washington he had an initial contact with Wendy Sherman, U.S. coordinator for North Korea policy that evening. Jo was expected to discuss with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright the following morning a set of pending bilateral issues including that of removing Pyongyang from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Vice Chairman Jo is to become the first North Korean official to pay a courtesy call on President Clinton at the White House, where he could deliver a message from North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il. Earlier in the afternoon of Oct. 8 his party of about 15, including First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Sok-Ju, were received in San Francisco by William Perry, who also had served as Washington's policy coordinator for North Korea.

The group toured a telecommunications equipment manufacturer in nearby Silicon Valley, Lucent Technology, before attending a dinner given by former Defense Secretary Perry at Stanford University.