Bush Meets Clinton, Gore

Bush then paid a visit to Vice President Al Gore that lasted only about 15 minutes. Outside his residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory, Gore greeted Bush. They shook hands and posed for photos before going inside.

"We're going to have a private conversation," Gore told reporters.

Aides to the vice president said Gore repeated his willingness to help Bush heal lingering partisan wounds from the bitter election dispute.

While neither Bush nor Clinton spokesmen would discuss the substance of their meeting, White House Press Secretary Jake Siewert said the talk focused on foreign policy. Clinton told reporters before the meeting that he hoped to discuss with Bush a possible Clinton trip to North Korea next month.

The president and president-elect had "a very good meeting, a very serious meeting," Siewert reported afterward.

"They spent about an hour in the Oval Office talking about a host of different issues, and then they retired to the old family dining room upstairs, where they had lunch and continued their discussion for about an hour, an hour and 10 minutes."

The meeting between Clinton and Bush was initially expected to last only about an hour and a half. One White House source said that as the talks ran overtime, on more than one occasion staff members tried to interrupt the two.

Bush was late for a briefing, Clinton was late for an East Room holiday event with children. But the outgoing and incoming president were engrossed in their conversation, and "it took a little prying to get them out of there," this source said.

"They covered primarily foreign policy," Siewert told reporters. Clinton "talked about some of the hot spots around the world and some of the challenges the new administration will face. ... The president said it was a good, thorough discussion primarily focused on foreign policy."

Siewert added that Clinton did spend a little bit of time talking about the operation of the White House and how to run an effective operation "and some of the lessons he had learned over the past eight years. There was not much of a discussion of domestic policy."

While Clinton and Bush avoided discussing substantive issues at a brief photo opportunity in the Oval Office, Clinton acknowledged that he planned to discuss with the president-elect the possibility of a lame-duck presidential visit to North Korea in early January, before Bush's inauguration.

The Clinton administration has been trying to negotiate a deal with North Korea that will lead the communist nation to give up its long-range missile program, which the United States sees as a destabilizing force. North Korea has proposed a deal under which it would abandon its own missile development program in exchange for an effort by the United States and its allies to provide the North Koreans with a way to get their communications satellites into space.

As the two posed for pictures in the Oval Office, Clinton said, "We've been talking – our people have – about what we've attempted to do in North Korea. It's interesting: When I had this meeting eight years ago with the president-elect's father, he told me that the biggest problem we were facing was the nuclear program in North Korea, and we were able to build on the work they had done and put an end to that.

"And now, the big problem there is the missile program. We may have a chance to put an end to it, and if we can, I think we should."

Clinton added, "This is something that I want to consult with the president-elect and his team about, and we'll see what the facts are, and I'll try to do what's best for the country."

Asked whether he opposed a Clinton trip to North Korea, Bush said, "I haven't had a chance to talk to the president yet."

Siewert said afterward that Clinton does not need Bush's approval to travel to North Korea. "We are making our own decision on that. The president will make his own decision based on what he thinks is in the national interest."

Clinton joked with Bush and the press about his unwillingness to discuss the substance of the meeting. Asked what the biggest issue Bush should be concerned about, Clinton said with a laugh, "I want to talk to him, not you. He can talk about that." Then he turned toward Bush and said, "I waited eight years to say that."

Bush thanked the president for inviting him to the White House and said it was very different from his prior visits when his father was president.

"It's such a huge honor to come as the president-elect, and I don't think I really fully realize the full impact until I swear in," Bush said. "I am humbled and honored, and I can't thank the president enough for his hospitality. He didn't need to do this."

Bush was challenged on that point by former UPI reporter Helen Thomas, dean of the White House press corps and now a columnist for Hearst Newspapers. "Yes he did," she said, interrupting the president-elect. "It's protocol."

As the press corps laughed, Bush said, "I wasn't finished yet," and went on to thank Clinton again, adding, "I'm here to listen."