November 22, 1998

Pres Clinton, speaking at joint appearance with South Korean Pres Kim Dae Jung in Seoul, makes unusual direct appeal to North Korea to set aside any nuclear ambitions in favor of strengthening ties to South Korea and US; says construction site in North Korea that could be beginnings of nuclear weapons plant and test firing last Aug of missile over Japan are 'cause for deep concern'; Clinton also comments on Iraq's refusal to comply with request from weapons inspectors; he urges caution and says it is 'important that we not overreact'; photo (M)

Comment on Helmut Lang's holder bag; drawing (View column) (S)

Article on rapid conversion of single-room occupancy hotels in midtown Manhattan; new owners are turning many of them into mid-priced boutique hotels; tenants fear that conversion will result in their marginalization; photo; charts; map (L)

Comment on aggressive marketing of young tennis stars as celebrities; photos of Martina Hingis, Serena and Venus Williams, Anna Kournikova and others in glamour game (M)

Special report, A Good Last Place, on Providence-Mount St Vincent nursing home in Seattle; Mount, as those who live there call it, is widely regarded to be what many Americans consider impossibility: good nursing home; it has found ways to be home to people who can no longer care for themselves and to be community that is more about living than about dying; nursing home's population of 215 men and women is similar to that of most nursing homes; average age of residents is 88; eighty percent suffer from some degree of dementia; aides, nurses and social workers keep residents clean and fed and treat them with respect and dignity; with nearly half of all Americans who reach 65 expected to spend time in nursing home, health care professionals are looking to Mount and handful of places like it for answers; photos (L)