Afternoon, National Art Museum of China

Remarks by Christopher R. Hill
Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
Afternoon, National Art Museum of China
Beijing, China
February 11, 2007

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  Hello.  How are you?  That is great art in there.  I hope you -- This is the director of the museum here.  We've just had a nice tour of this exhibit of American art, three centuries of American art and political expression put together by the Guggenheim Museum and the Chinese Fine Arts Museum, together with the Ministry of Culture.  It was very nice. 

You know, we are working so closely together with China in the Six-Party Talks, and that is very important.  But it also very important to see America and China also together in art work.  I'm so honored to see this beautiful exhibit in this beautiful museum. 

Thank you. Thank you very much.  So, do you have any questions about the art? [Laughter]

QUESTION:  Ambassador Hill, is it a good sign or a bad sign that you had time to come to the exhibit?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  It is a perfectly good sign.  No problems.  We're just taking a couple of hours.  I think I have to go back and have a -- careful there -- we have to have a meeting in about an hour with I think the Chinese delegation.

QUESTION:  Did you also see this exhibition, Between Ideas and Realities?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  No I haven't.

[Journalist indicates large exhibit advertisement behind A/S Hill.]

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  [Laughter] No, no, I haven't seen that.  Thank you very much for the tip.  Really, this was quite a -- This exhibit of American art you can't even see in America, because it comes from all different places, including my alma mater Bowdoin College.  They have a couple of pictures in there.

QUESTION:  There wasn't a head of delegation meeting scheduled as of this morning.  Was something...?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  I'm sorry.  I think there is one later this afternoon.  And I think I misspoke.  I think that is what we have at 4:00.

QUESTION:  So that was scheduled as of this morning?  That is not a change in the schedule?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  I don't think so. I mean, there have been some ongoing bilateral meetings.  As I said today, we are down to this one item and there is a lot of discussion about how to handle it.  I would sort of prefer to put it in a working group.  We are looking at an overall document, and some of these details I think best belong in a working group.  You know, we'll have to try to get through it.

QUESTION:  Are you closer to a resolution?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  I don't want to make a story like that.  We'll have a resolution when we have a resolution.  It's always dangerous to say we're almost there, and then we solve that, and then something else comes up.

QUESTION:  You said yesterday that you (inaudible) that this would be an issue that you could deal with down the road. 

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  In a working group, yes.  This is really a matter of coming up with some numbers for a working group.

QUESTION:  That suggests that North Korea is tying its present demands to some sort of understanding on how the light water reactor issue will be dealt with.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  We're not dealing with that subject.  We're dealing with some other subjects.

QUESTION:  So Mr. Hill, are you pretty confident that you can convince North Korea to work on this? 

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  Yes, I just saw Mr. Kim Gye Gwan just before I came over to the art museum here.  He told me he was taking some ideas and thinking about them.  We'll see if we can make some progress.

You ought to see this art exhibit.  I'm really telling you.  You should put down your cameras and your notebooks and go see some good art.

QUESTION:  So are you waiting for the North Koreans...

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  She's not interested in good art.  (Laughter.)

QUESTION:  I'm sorry.  At the moment, are you waiting for the North Koreans to respond to your --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  I think there are some ideas that they are going to think about and respond to.  I think maybe we'll get an idea of that when we have a head of delegation meeting.  Again, I think some of these things ought to be put into a technical working group.  They will be resolved.  They are either resolved here in a working group -- and I'd rather they be resolved in a working group, by people
who know what they're talking about -- rather than deal at a political level with issues that are more technical.

QUESTION:  Is that something that Mr. Kim can confirm without going to Pyongyang for permission? 

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  You'll have to ask him what he needs to go back to Pyongyang on.  It's not my -- I'm sure he can tell you.

QUESTION:  Mr. Ambassador, do you think the difference between the two countries is getting closer than this morning? 

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  What you always worry about is when you work on one issue, then some other issues pop up.  So far, nothing else has popped up.  It's just this one issue.  So that's a good sign.  I don't know.  I don't know.  We'll have a deal when we have a deal, and then we can talk about how close we came.

QUESTION:  Do you feel like the ball is basically in their court and you're waiting for a response? 

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  I don't write people's headlines.  I'm just telling you, they have some ideas.  Mr. Kim said he would think about them.  I think he's going to be getting back to the Chinese again.  The Chinese at these critical moments, when you have a text and you're trying to work out final arrangements for the text, the host of the talks play a very important role.  Wu Dawei is working very hard today with his whole team.  We'll have to see.

QUESTION:  So Mr. Hill, is it a pretty good sign that you're taking a couple of hours to visit this museum rather than being head-to-head with Mr. Kim for hours and hours?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  I think if you can't find an hour to look at art, you're not living a good life.  I think it's always good to take an hour and look at some art.

QUESTION:  So why not invite the other delegations to visit this art museum?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  That's a very good idea, but we brought the whole American delegation.

QUESTION:  Are you going to bring the other chief delegates?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  I will recommend it to them.  When we are in the plenary, I'll suggest it to everybody.

All right.  Hey, I've got to get back to work.  So see you later.

(To Director Fan Dian of the National Museum of Art):  Mr. Director, thank you so much.  It's such a wonderful exhibit, and thank you so much for taking time from your busy schedule.

Thank you, very much.  All right.  Bye bye.