CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. and communist North Korea are taking advantage of a thaw in relations. The two countries, sworn enemies for 50 years, are talking. Today it was Secretary of State Madeleine Albright making a connection with her North Korean counterpart. Bangkok bureau chief John Raedler joins us now from the Thai capital where the meeting took place. What happened, John?</s>JOHN RAEDLER, CNN BANGKOK BUREAU CHIEF: A substantively modest but symbolically historic step away from the past, from the sterility and hostility of the past. That was Madeleine Albright's assessment of this unprecedented meeting. For the first time, a U.S. secretary of state and a North Korean foreign minister reached out across a table, shook hands, then sat down and talked for 70 minutes. Albright said the meeting enable her to get acquainted with her North Korean counterpart, Paek Nam Sun, to reaffirm U.S. interest in more normal relations with North Korea, and to discuss briefly core issues between the two sides.</s>MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I said we were encouraged by his government's recent efforts to expand diplomatic contact with other nations and by its moratorium on long-range missile launches. And I was direct in stating that American concerns about all aspects of the missile threat, nuclear weapons-related activities, and the importance of achieving the goals of the agreed framework. I also said that the United States fully supports the intensified inter- Korean dialogue now under way.</s>RAEDLER: Asked if she had gleaned anything from the foreign minister about North Korea's purported offer to give up its long-range missile program in return for help with a peaceful space program, the secretary said, we discussed it, but I was not able to glean. Later, a senior State Department officials said the foreign minister acknowledged that this issue had been discussed at a recent meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and Russian President Vladimir Putin, but that at today's meeting, the senior official said, the North Korean foreign minister declined any further clarification. John Raedler, CNN, Bangkok.</s>LIN: Thank you, John.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, North Korean Foreign Minister Hold Historic Meeting