FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2000 Albright arrives in N. Korean capital for historic visit by Robin Wright Los Angeles Times October 23, 2000 PYONGYANG, North Korea - In a historic visit by the first ranking American official ever to come to North Korea, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright arrived in Pyongyang Monday morning for talks aimed at improving relations between the United States and the North and addressing some of the biggest glo bal challenges facing Washington. Albright was greeted by Vice For eign Minister Kim Gae Gwan in a low-key ceremony at the airport here. She then headed to the former palace of the late “Great Leader" Kim II Sung, which has been turned into a museum and mausoleum and where Vice Marshal Cho Myong Nok, the No. 2 man to current leader Kim Jong 11, was to meet her. Earlier this month, Cho visited President Clinton at the White House. Albright's three-day visit to the Ko rean peninsula, which is scheduled to include a stopover in Seoul on Wednesday, follows a whirlwind round of diplomacy in recent weeks that has stunned U.S. policy-makers, including many who have tried to chip away diplomatically at this isolated Communist nation and its quirky po litical dynasty for years. The initial progress and rapid pace of negotiations are likely to pave the ‘Killed in by Thomas E. Ricks and Steve Vogel The Washington Post October 23, 2000 WASHINGTON - In the tense hours after the bombing of the USS Cole on Oct. 12, Chris Ferretti was among the spouses who waited anxiously at Norfolk Naval Station for news about their loved ones aboard the crippled ship in faraway Yemen. But unlike most of the others, Chris Ferretti is a man. When his wife. Petty Officer 2nd Class Loretta Lynn Tay lor Ferretti, finally was able to call, she told him that she had been very lucky. Shortly before the blast, she decided to skip lunch in favor of a nap. She was asleep when the explo sion hit the ship's mess. The attack on tm. Cole, which ap pears to have been the first major ter rorist attack on a U.S. warship, also marked another milestone: It was the first time that women permanently assigned to a Navy combatant ship have died in an attack on that ship, according to Lt. Jane Alexander, a Navy spokeswoman. She chose those words carefully because the Navy is not sure whether a female nurse ever was killed while serving temporarily on a warship. Two of the 17 sailors who died aboard the Cole were women - Lakeina M. Francis, 19, ofWoodleaf, N.C., and Lakiba Nicole Palmer, 22, 7 missing after flash floods in Arizona by Tom Gorman Los Angeles Times October 23, 2000 Authorities in western Arizona were searching for seven people Monday after flash floods ripped through two small farming commu nities about 100 miles west of Phoe- nix on Sunday. Among the missing were two people who were seen being swept away by a torrent that coursed wildly through a normally dry desert wash without warning, said La Paz County Sheriffs Deputy Karen Harris. An additional five people - migrant workers who labor in nearby melon, cotton and vegetable fields - were unaccounted for by their employers, Harris said. Because of continuing high water, the search for the missing people was being conducted by helicopter, the Sheriffs Department said. Residents of the small towns of Wenden and Salome, just north of Interstate 10, said the flood waters came with no warning before dawn way for a trip to Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, by Clinton next month, an event considered wildly improbable just a couple of months ago. At a time when the administra tion faces a multitude of foreign policy challenges, North Korea could even prove to be its most notable fi nal success, experts say. “This visit may be the most impor tant trip of Albright's tenure,” said Joseph Cirincione, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for Interna tional Peace in Washington. “This small impoverished nation holds the key to solving several vexing global challenges facing the United States.” At the top of the agenda are weap ons of mass destruction, particularly North Korea's advanced missile pro gram; terrorism; and defusing tension on the world's most heavily fortified border, between North and South Korea, which has been a source of in stability and sporadic crises in East Asia since the 1950-53 Korean War. About 33,000 Americans died in that war, and 37,000 are based in the South. U.S. officials are trying to downplay expectations of a big break through during the visit. Albright has come “to listen, to discuss the range of ideas that would meet our funda mental concerns,” a senior U.S. offi cial told reporters traveling on her plane. But the momentum has clearly ac- Action’: Is gender an issue? of San Diego - a fact the country ap pears to have taken pretty much in stride. 'Whether they're male or fe male doesn't matter,” said Rear Adm. John Foley, commander of naval sur face forces for the U.S. At- lantic Fleet. "The focus has been on all Cole sailors.” “The story is that there is no story,” said another senior Navy officer. “The media didn’t say, ‘Holy mackerel.’" Academic experts on the military also have noted the lack of contro versy. "1 have to admit to being surprised that there was no media coverage re lated to the fact that women died aboard the Cole,” said Juanita Firestone, a military soci ologist at the University of Texas at San Antonio. But there is sharp dis- agreement among the ex perts about what this means One school says the large, and growing, role of women in the military is now widely accepted “1 think the American public has be killed, regardless of their gender, gotten used to women being killed Thus, the public is taking the deaths in the line of duty, not only in the of women in stride, and, rightfully, military, but as police officers,” said mourning for all the casualties of the Sunday, trapping some in their homes and sending others to rooftops and into trees, Harris said. About 200 people were rescued - by boat, skip loaders and at least 11 by military helicopters, she said. There were no confirmed fatalities, and Harris said officials held out hope that the missing people were safe but hesitant to come forward because they were undocumented migrant workers. The flooding was triggered by more than an inch of rain that fell sud denly Sunday morning in foothills northeast of the two towns. “We didn't know anything until the runoff hit us,” said Harris, who aided in the rescues. “I was waist-high in water, walk ing into people's houses,” she said. “It was dark, cold and very wet, and people were trapped in their homes.” At daybreak - and continuing into Monday - rescue workers viewed the continuing destruction as water swept over vehicles, dislodged mobile homes from their foundations, tore WORLD & NATION celerated since a June visit to North Korea by South Korean President Kim Dae Jung opened the way for rap prochement with the outside world. Just days before Albright's visit, Brit ain and Germany both announced that they would renew diplomatic relations with Pyongyang, and Spain and Bel gium are expected to follow soon. The European Union also promised aid, including a $l7 million package to develop agriculture, and pledged to work toward closer economic and political ties. And Japan is scheduled to hold its own talks with North Ko rean officials in Beijing next week. The foundation for Albright's trip was laid during the visit to Washing ton by Cho. After those talks, North Korea renounced all forms of terror ism and the two former enemies de clared their intention to “formally end the Korean War” by eventually con verting an armistice into a permanent treaty. The two governments now may also be close to an agreement that would remove North Korea from the State Department's Terrorism List, which by law requires sanctions that bar any sales or exports to targeted nations except of humanitarian goods. North Korea was last involved in a major terrorist attack in 1987, U.S. officials say, when it masterminded the downing of a South Korean pas senger plane near Myanmar that killed all 115 people on board. Mady Wechsler Segal, a sociologist at the University of Maryland. Adds retired Navy Capt. Georgia Sadler, “The public understands that people who serve in the military can Military Women PMwktc npment a substantial portion of each branch !e effect, particu- intact an exemption for the about 400 Central Valley, to 1,000 shepherds who tend sheep 're in a position and lamb in California, against the wall” Advocates for the shepherds say that because of the exemption, ranch (ts were echoed ers can require them to work around, Uof the Cali* the clock with no days off for a ition, which monthly wage of about $9OO, in ad - Dunlap said dition to room and board, itb the wage - it into the '** ‘--V.; ■ ' > ' , '' sonnel in the Pentagon's official re port to Congress on the “Conduct of the Persian Gulf War." After that conflict, the Pentagon dropped a variety of restrictions, and today 92 percent of military career fields are open to women, including virtually all combat jobs in the Navy and Air Force, except in Special Op erations and aboard submarines. In the Army, women fly attack helicop ters but are still barred from most ground combat roles in the infantry, artillery, armor and combat engineer branches. There is general agreement among the experts that, given the large num ber of women in combat billets, the next time the United States fights a large-scale ground war, women may die in large numbers. Also, analysts say, the nature of warfare is chang ing, making areas behind the lines al most as vulnerable as the front lines, so that even if more combat slots aren't opened to women, they still are likely to be exposed to hostile fire. * by 2002^ rates. 1/7 w m, * i: f s^' % -K :^ 4 :4 A 'V - ■■ ' / iSfillfi ' s.