Morning Walkthrough With Reporters Prior to the Six-Party Talks

Christopher R. Hill, Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
St. Regis Hotel
Beijing, China
February 8, 2007

QUESTION: Ambassador Hill, there’s a report out this morning that in Berlin, you signed a memorandum of understanding with Kim Kye Gwan for the (inaudible) of the nuclear reactor (inaudible)?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: We did not sign anything. We had a very good discussion, and we talked about what we might do at the next Six-Party Talks. It was a very useful discussion. We did not sign anything.

QUESTION: Is there a memorandum there and did you hand something to Wu Dawei to that effect yesterday?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I talked to Wu Dawei – no, not yesterday, this was weeks ago -- about how we might see the way forward. But not there was absolutely nothing – we didn’t negotiate. The negotiation takes part in the Six-Party Talks, which I’m about to see how we’re going to do.

QUESTION: Regarding the target of this round of talks, I wonder whether you will talk about creating working groups this round, especially working groups for (inaudible)?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: If we talk about working groups, it won’t be especially any one working group. It will be sets of working groups, as foreseen in the September ’05 statement -- because we could get to the point, if we’re successful, we could get to the point where we’re discussing technical matters, and we need to break up into working groups. But it won’t be just for one working group; it’ll be for several.

QUESTION: Mr. Hill, you’ve said that this session’s talks are about first steps. Now, do those first steps also cover North Korea’s highly enriched uranium activities? Where do they come into this process?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I have resisted up until today getting into the specific elements of what the steps would be. So I think I’ll continue that until we actually meet in the Six Parties, and maybe I can talk to you a little bit about it afterwards.

At this point I don’t want to tell you what aspects of the September ’05 agreement we’re trying to get implemented, except to say that we want... When we do get a set of actions, if we do, it will be widely seen as a very solid, positive step toward implementation of the September ’05 agreement, with the understanding that there’s no success here until we implement the full agreement. We’ve got a lot of work to do today and in the coming few days, probably, and it’s all along meeting with the Six Parties.

QUESTION: This time around, are you confident that Kim Kye Gwan will come to the full latitudes and negotiate on them?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: You really should ask him. I don’t give him his instructions. You’ll have to ask him whether he has his instructions to reach a deal. Certainly that was a part of our discussion in Berlin, and I have every reason to believe he will. It’s really between him and his boss.

QUESTION: Ambassador Hill, just one more. In this round of talks, the North Koreans have done a lot of public negotiation, unusual to a certain extent. What’s the reasoning? Do you think that’s been helpful, that there’s been so much publicly stated by the North Koreans about their goals and what they wanted at this round of talks?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I would never tell a member of the press that it’s not helpful to talk about things in the press. That said, in fairness to the North Koreans, some of the things that were said were not by the North Koreans but rather by Americans that they were talking to, some of whom were involved with the process in the past and have a very keen interest in seeing progress. I think we can take from the comments that some Americans have made that there’s a real desire to have progress. But I don’t think the North Koreans have really said that much to the press.

QUESTION: Sasae called this round a watershed to the Six-Party Talks. Would you agree with that term?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Watershed is pretty good. Mr. Sasae is a – That’s a good turn of phrase for this. Clearly it’s a very important round because those of us who’ve been involved with this know that this cannot go on forever. I think you all would get a little tired of it if it did. Really, it’s a very serious means to a serious end. We’re trying to achieve denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. We’re trying to deal with some of the causes of this problem. So if you look at the Six-Party Talks – I’m sorry, if you look at the September statement, we’re dealing with this in a very broad and comprehensive way; we’re dealing with this with not just the U.S. and North Korea, but with all the players.

We feel today, in this new millennium, we have kind of a different relationship than we had with China than we had back in 1994. That’s also a very big difference. We have a UN Security Council that’s very much seized with this problem. There are a lot of differences today than there were way back when in the 1990's during the Agreed Framework, which also had its set of challenges. Our task is to see if the Six-Party process can yield some results, and I think we’ll get a better idea of that after the next few days.

QUESTION: Could you tell us your schedule today?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I think I’m going to the Embassy. I’m going to track down a good cup of coffee. Then I’m going to meet with the delegation, do some reading. I think we’re bound to at some point -- I’m not precisely sure of the timing -- I think we’ll meet with the Japanese delegation. We’re going to meet with all the delegations bilaterally sooner or later in the 24 hours. I believe, you’ll have to check with the Chinese, but I believe the actual Six-Party meeting will begin in the middle of the afternoon -- something like that. And I don’t know what I’ll be doing tonight. At some point, we’ll go out to dinner with somebody. I’ll let you know after that happens.

QUESTION: Are you expected to return here in between the morning and afternoon?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I don’t plan to take a nap, no. I don’t think I will be back here.

QUESTION: Do you plan to have a bilateral meeting with North Korea?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Probably, but we haven’t scheduled anything, but probably we’ll do that. These bilateral meetings I think are very necessary, but sometimes they’re just scheduled at the last minute. I think the North Korean delegation gets in around noontime. Probably they have to go straight to the Diaoyutai. We’ll see them when we start the Six-Parties, and we’ll figure out if there’s a need for a private discussion. If this does not work, it will not be because we hadn’t had enough discussions. I’ve lost my voice talking.

All right, we’ll see you all later. Take the rest of the day off.

Released on February 8, 2007