Afternoon Walkthrough March 14

Christopher R. Hill, Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs

St. Regis Hotel
Beijing, China
March 14, 2007

QUESTION: What do you hope to achieve in this round of talks?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: We have to do several working groups. We’ve got the energy working group, the denuclearization working group – which is very important – and we have the Northeast Asian security working group. And we’ll have some bilateral meetings, I think, with all of the delegations. I’ll be looking forward to meeting with the Japanese delegation in the next couple of days. I talked to Ken Sasae this morning, or last night your time, and I’ll see him when he gets in on Friday. Then we’ll have some bilateral meetings over the weekend, including with the DPRK. And then we’ll have the Six-Party meeting on Monday, so a very busy time.

QUESTION: What’s you plan for this evening?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I think I have some meetings over at the Foreign Ministry; then I think with the South Koreans.

QUESTION: Will you meet with Kim Gye-gwan?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Oh I don’t know, maybe.

QUESTION: What will you be discussing with Mr. Kim?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Just the overall continuation of the Six-Party process, the 60-day obligations, and then the next set of obligations. It’ll be a continuation of some things we talked about in New York.

QUESTION: (inaudible)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I think the Macau issue will be resolved as we’ve promised it will be resolved. I think there will be an announcement from Washington at some point, consistent with our obligations to resolve that matter.

QUESTION: Is there a time frame for that?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: It has to be done in 30 days. But I can’t tell you when the announcement will be, but I think it will be before 30 days.

Thank you very much, good to see you.

Released on March 14, 2007