Remarks by Christopher R. Hill
Asst. Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
Evening walk-through
Kerry Center Hotel, Beijing, China
January 10, 2007

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I just had a good discussion with Wu Dawei to discuss the way forward on the Six-Party process. We focused, of course, on the need to complete the phase two actions and, in particular, try to complete the declaration. So we kicked around some ideas on how we might do that and agreed that we will be in close contact as we see what we can do in the next week or two. I think the Chinese made the point that we’re not maybe as far apart as people might think. There are obviously a couple of issues that are important that we need to get resolved. But we’ve also made a lot of progress on the declaration itself. We also compared notes on our trips to Yongbyon and his own observations of the degree that the disabling has gone forward. So it was a good discussion. We’ll have to see what we can do in the next days and weeks to try to complete this declaration this year.

QUESTION: Have you and Wu Dawei come up with some idea of the timing for holding the next heads of delegation meeting?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I asked whether he had some idea about specific timing. He did not. I think he is very focused, as I am, on how to complete the phase two actions. I think he’s more concerned about that than about scheduling a Six-Party meeting. My sense is he was not ready to schedule something, and I think he is more focused on trying to get through these last issues.

QUESTION: Will we see the next heads of delegation meeting after we see the declaration?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I don’t know. I think we’re going to try to make some more progress on the declaration. We might make some progress on it at a Six-Party head of delegation meeting. The issue is for the North Koreans to come forward with a declaration that is complete and correct, and they have not forwarded that to the Chinese at this point. Again, we had a really good discussion of what the elements of that are, and I think we’re in sync as to what needs to be done. So we’ll see. He’s in touch with all the parties including the North Koreans.

QUESTION: Was there any sense that he was trying to maybe persuade the U.S. to kind of back down on its demands?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: No. He wasn’t trying to persuade us about anything. You should ask him, but my sense is he was fairly optimistic that the overall process is moving forward and that once we get into phase three, we can also make some serious progress. So he was, as I am, very interested in getting through phase two.

QUESTION: What is your sense about what is holding back North Korea from offering this declaration? Is it specific elements in dispute, or is it distrust about the wider political environment?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: No. I think you have to ask them. But some of the elements – and, again, I don’t want to get into specifically identifying what they are, because if I identify certain elements as stumbling blocks then we will surely make them stumbling blocks -- I think part of it is that the DPRK does not want to acknowledge certain activities, because to do so involves for them a change of how they have handled those activities in the past. So I think there is concern on their part that to acknowledge certain activities would invite additional questioning on our part and further scrutiny on things.

Our point is that a declaration is a declaration, and we can’t be sweeping problems under the rug or pretending that issues don’t exist. The point of it is to be complete and correct. I have told the North Koreans on many occasions that we are not interested in picking out some element in the declaration and start asking a thousand more questions. What we need to know is what the scope of their nuclear programs is. And we want to get to the point where when all these nuclear programs are abandoned, we don’t find out there are some additional programs that were not addressed because they were excluded in the declaration. So we need to be very clear on what they have been up to.

QUESTION: Does that include uranium enrichment?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Again, I don’t want to get into specific elements. You can certainly guess which elements there are problems with in terms of how they make the declaration, but I’ll let you guess on that. I don’t want to identify them myself.

QUESTION: Is there any draft of the declaration or –

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: No. They have not given us a declaration. We had some discussions when we were in Pyongyang. But we don’t have a declaration, and there is no sign that they have given one to the Chinese. In fact, when they do have a declaration, it is appropriate to give it to the Chinese -- not to us.

QUESTION: So if they haven’t given you anything written down, how do you know the declaration –

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: We had a discussion of what all the elements are in three main categories of materials, facilities, and programs. And while we were in –Actually, this really started last August in Shenyang with the denuclearization working group. We discussed what would be in all those three categories, and there were some glaring omissions which we raised and which we discussed again. But it was pretty clear in those discussions that there were going to be some real omissions. Another way we could have done it is to invite them to submit an incorrect and incomplete declaration and then start haggling over that. But instead we chose to continue the discussion with the idea that when they do produce a declaration, it ought to be pretty close to being final.

QUESTION: The exchange of letters between President Bush and Kim Jong Il had any impact? And secondly, the Chinese sent a delegation to Pyongyang recently. Who was in it?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Wu Dawei was part of that.

QUESTION: And what happened? What was the outcome?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Nothing that I could tell. I think Wu went down to Yongbyon as I did, and he talked to some of the technical people there. He talked to the Americans there who are doing some of the disabling activities and felt, as I did, that we’ve made a lot of progress on disabling. You know, it is important to keep that in mind as we face this problem of a declaration -- that with respect to disabling, we’ve gotten a lot done and stuff that has never been done before. I think we can all derive some optimism from that. But in this business we have to insist on completing all the tasks, and we’re simply not there yet on the declaration.

Okay? Oh.

QUESTION: Did the Chinese share your view that North Korea hasn’t submitted its declaration [inaudible]?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: They are not suggesting that they’ve submitted a declaration, because there is no declaration.

QUESTION: Do they feel that they need to do that quickly? Did you talk about that?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, I think they’d like it done as soon as possible, because I think the Chinese, based on discussions tonight, have some hopes that we can really get through phase three -- that is, the complete denuclearization -- even do it in this calendar year. So I think they would like to move ahead.

Okay?

QUESTION: What plans do you have tomorrow?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I think I have one meeting in the morning. You’ll have to check with the Embassy. I have a meeting in the morning. And then I think I hop on a flight and go just eight hours to Moscow, and meet with my counterpart there, and then get back to Washington in time to see the New England Patriots play.

Okay? See you later.