Interview with NBC News - 02.13.07

Christopher R. Hill
Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
Interview with NBC News
U.S. Embassy Beijing
Beijing, China
February 13, 2007



QUESTION:  First of all congratulations.  How does it feel?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  Well, you know, it’s been a long five days, but I think it’s a good first step.  So the real significance of it will be to see how it goes in further stages, because we are dealing in complete denuclearization.  We are not just hoping to shut down their reactor.  We’re aiming to eventually dismantle that reactor and see that North Korea gets out of this nuclear business entirely.

QUESTION:  How big a deal though is this first step, especially in light of the things which the public knows and all the other things which you must know?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  Well, you know, we are working through a multilateral process.  So of course it's important what we do with North Korea.  But you know, what is also very important is the fact that we are working really hand in glove with the Chinese.  I mean the Chinese absolutely share our objectives here.  So getting everyone to work together to get North Korea, first of all, to accept in a declaratory way that they are going to get rid of their programs and then finally to get them to do something on the ground, I think it's significant and certainly well worth pursuing.

QUESTION:  How much confidence do you invest that North Korea will actually hold up its end of the bargain?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  Well, we’ve got -- You know, it’s a Six Party process.  So if they want to cheat or walk away from this, they are not just walking away from the U.S.  They would be walking away from a number of other countries, including all of their neighbors.

QUESTION:  Do you think they have more to lose at this point?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  There’s no question these nuclear programs for North Korea have been quite an albatross. They have really helped to impoverish that country and to deepen its isolation.  So if North Korea wants to improve its lot and join the world, it’s got to get out of this nuclear business.

QUESTION:  You know, I heard a high level diplomat say one time, "We don’t really worry about North Korea blowing things up; we worry about them selling every single weapon that they possibly can or technology."  That’s ultimately one of the bigger concerns.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  Well actually we are worried about a number of things.  First of all, if North Korea is allowed to get away with developing nuclear weapons, what does that say to other states?  Moreover, if North Korea were to develop these nuclear weapons, what would happen in this so combustible region of Northeast Asia -- which is why I think it’s very important to have the Six Party process to work together and to begin to develop a kind of sense of community in this region.

QUESTION:  What do you say to the hawks back in the United States who think that you all should never be yielding in any regard, that you shouldn’t have any consideration of not considering them a terrorism state, keep the embargoes going, keep pressing, you know, that you all maybe giving away too much?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  Look, people are entitled to their opinion.  There will be a lot of criticism, but I tend to look at these things from the point of view of results.  Can we get something done here with diplomacy?  If I thought we could do something without diplomacy, sure, I would be more interested in that.  But I think diplomacy is very necessary.  And what to me is very key is to work with our partners, and we are working very closely with the Japanese on this, South Koreans, the Chinese and the Russians.  So I think it’s the way to go.

QUESTION:  I am not going to ask you for some sort of psychological deconstruction of what is in there, but it's intriguing for us on the outside to wonder what the atmosphere is like inside.  I am not reaching for stories of fisticuffs -- because I am sure it’s all done very diplomatically -- but what’s it like?  How does the exchange happen?  How do you all communicate?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  Well, there’s a certain pace and lifecycle in a negotiation.  You get to a point where you've kind of discussed everything .  Then you have get it on paper.  And that’s when things can get very very tense, and you don’t know if one side will try to walk out or something like that.  So certainly we got through some rather tense moments there.

QUESTION:  Did the tone of the North Koreans seem different though this time as opposed to others?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  Well, we had had some consultations with them; we had some consultations in Berlin.  So we had a pretty good idea that we could make some progress here.  But then we ended up with lengthy discussions about this fuel question where they wanted to have more, more heating fuel -- that sort of thing.  So we looked at that.  And rather than turn it into a concession or a roadblock, we looked for ways that we could go deeper into the process of denuclearization.  So we gave them more, but we asked for more.

QUESTION:  Do you worry that  -- Is there a concern among either the United States or the other five countries involved in these talks that North Korea might be rewarded for essentially unsettling the world with these nuclear tests?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  Well certainly, when a country develops nuclear weapons, this is a grave concern that the international community has to have.  And certainly, you don’t want to put yourself in the position of rewarding bad behavior.  But frankly, North Korea is not doing very well.  I mean, they have serious problems.  And so in a sense we are helping them out of their problems by helping them to denuclearize -- because if they denuclearize, a lot of things are going to be possible.  If they don’t denuclearize, if they try to hide this stuff or stay with this, frankly, they are going to have a continued very difficult existence.

QUESTION:  As well as destabilizing the region -- because you know better than anybody both China and South Korea don’t want that government to completely fail, because it produces refugee problems, economic problems and all the rest of it.  So what’s the ultimate goal?  What’s a realistic expectation that the U.S. and these other countries have as to what will happen here?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  Well, I think a realistic goal is to get them on the track to fulfilling their commitment – I mean a commitment they’ve already made to denuclearize – and get them on a step-by-step basis to start taking the actions.  For example, this is the first action to shut down a reactor.  The next action will be to disable it, then to take the thing apart, and then to carve it out.  So I think we are going to have to do this step by step.  I don’t think this is a situation where the North Koreans are going fall out of bed one day and say we are going to get rid of all this stuff.  I think its going to be done on a step-by-step basis.

QUESTION:  Critics have said that had the Bush Administration not canceled the Clinton agreement, that an agreement like this might have been in place some five years ago.  Any thoughts?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  Well, to be sure there was an agreement in the 1990’s, the so-called Agreed Framework.  Some pretty talented people worked on that and worked on that very hard.  But that was kind of a different type of an agreement and a different era, really.  

What we’re trying to do is to craft a multilateral process that can address some of the underlying problems in the region and that can address some of the problems of the bilateral relationships – for example between North Korea and Japan – that can address some of the issues on which the region really has not been able to come together.  It may be a successful economic region.  But when you look at the state of politics among these states, it is not very good.  So we are approaching this in a much broader framework.  So it’s a very different approach.

QUESTION:  Two more questions and then we’re done.  Do you have any sense of more optimism at this point, or have you been around the block long enough that you don’t want to go out on a limb by saying…

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  Well, you know, people always ask me, “Are you optimistic or pessimistic?”  What I do is I just go through these processes.  I try to set something up and then see if the North Koreans will respond.  I’m optimistic we can get through this phase, and I’m optimistic that we can maybe get to the next phase.  But after that, we just have to see.

QUESTION:  Who benefits the most if this thing goes through?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  Everybody.  Everybody.  That’s what deal-making is all about.

QUESTION:  Congratulations.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL:  Thanks.


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