Foreign Ministers Yuk It Up at ASEAN

B A N G K O K, Thailand, Aug. 1 -- In black bowler hat, with a rhythmic swing of the hips, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright played the vamp for her last role at a ritual concert by delegates to close the Association of South East Asian Nations’ annual security forum in Bangkok last Friday.

“Thanks for the memories,” she crooned after the stage opened to her silhouetted in black, her backup singers including spokesman Richard Boucher, human rights supremo Harold Koh and top North Korean adviser Wendy Sherman.

But the lyrics of the song, whose performance by Bob Hope she imitated by using a golf club like a cane, Cabaret-style, were not quite as the U.S. singer would have recalled.

To Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan and Philippine Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon, Albright paused for dramatic effect and belted out: “Don’t worry boys, you can mess around in my internal affairs anytime.”

Of Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun of North Korea, until recently called a “rogue state” by Washington, she sang: “Used to think he was a rogue, but here at ARF he’s so in vogue.”

Earlier Albright and Paek held their countries’ highest level meeting since the Korean War of 1950-53, with just months to go until President Clinton leaves office in January.

Seeking to engage rather than isolate the Stalinist state with a missile program, Washington has recently stopped calling it a “rogue state,” naming it a “state of concern” instead.

‘Knowing Me, Knowing EU, Ah-ha’

The skits performed by delegations from among 10 ASEAN countries and their dialogue partners included a Chinese drum dance, a cacophony of Korean percussion and an Indian version of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream.

A version of a song by ABBA was led by European Foreign Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten and Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, who was wearing a blonde wig and glittery costume.