Morning Walkthrough With Reporters at Six-Party Talks

Christopher R. Hill, Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
St. Regis Hotel
Beijing, China
March 16, 2007

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Just off to breakfast with Ambassador ElBaradei, with the South Korean and Japanese colleagues. Then we'll go into the working group on Northeast Asia over at the Russian Embassy; and then hope to see the Chinese at some point later today for some consultation on BDA. Then I look forward to seeing the North Koreans tomorrow when they arrive - the DPRK delegation. Mr. Kim should arrive tomorrow, and he will also take part, of course, in denuclearization tomorrow. So it's a pretty full agenda for the next couple of days.

QUESTION: Mr. Glaser is coming over to Macau. Do you know if that was something that was scheduled, or is it because there was some miscommunication on the BDA issue?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: We just want to make sure everyone is very clear on what we've done in BDA. We've had very good contacts with the Macau authorities throughout this process, and I think the idea was to continue to have those good contacts. And also I think Mr. Glaser will have the opportunity to meet with the Chinese as well. I think it's just part of our effort to try to maintain very close consultations to this.

QUESTION: So that is part of an effort to repair some of the damage that was done?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I didn't say that. I said its part of our effort to continue our very close relations.

QUESTION: Mr. Hill, the Chinese were very concerned yesterday, they were deeply in regret following the BDA decision. Are you still as optimistic as you were last night that this can be resolved?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Frankly, I think it has been resolved, and I'm very -- As I've said yesterday, I've continued to believe very strongly, and in fact I'm sure that this will not pose any obstacles to our Six-Party process.

QUESTION: On BDA, what kind of issues are you going to have a consultation with the Chinese?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I think we're just going to explain some of the modalities, some of the procedures from our point of view about how this is being resolved. We've already resolved it pursuant to our obligation to resolve in 30 days. So we're just explaining some of the details of that.

QUESTION: Is Mr. Glaser coming to Beijing?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: You'll have to check with Treasury. I believe he is, but I'm not the official spokesman for the Treasury Department.

QUESTION: So he'll be meeting with the Chinese as well then?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I believe he is, but you'll have to check with Treasury. In any event, we've had consultations with the Chinese, and I hope to continue that today. But I think in the next couple of days we will be shifting very much toward the Six-Party process as we get ready for Monday's meeting.

QUESTION: What's your understanding of North Korea's current involvement in illicit activities that got them in trouble in the first place?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I'm sorry?

QUESTION: What's your - sorry, bad throat today - what's your understanding of North Korea's current involvement in these illicit activities the got them in trouble in the first place?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I'm not an analyst on the involvement of North Korean entities in illicit activities, except that obviously our concern about this brought us to this bank in Macau and an investigation that actually started several years ago and culminated a year and a half ago. We've made it very clear to the DPRK that these sorts of activities have to stop. I think they have heard our point. And I think our action in the last 18 months to remove BDA - it's a money laundering concern - and to protect U.S. financial institutions against BDA, I think it speaks very clearly about our concern about this.

QUESTION: Mr. Ambassador, you will raise the missile issue of the DPRK in today's working group?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Today's working group is an organizational working group on Northeast Asian security, and we need to agree with the other parties on what should be involved in discussing Northeast Asian security. We think one of the issues that should be on the agenda as we go forward in this process is the issue of missiles. I think we will raise this and see how we can gain consensus on that issue.

QUESTION: What are the others besides the missile issue?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: We're not the chair of this group. As you know, the Russian Federation is chairing this. But we would look for the Northeast Asia - for this working group - to create a sort of dialogue forum for dealing with security problems in the region for the future. To do that, we need to work on an agenda of issues.

This is something very new. So when you start something new, you should start with some small steps. We won't be looking for very big steps here. We're trying to start very modestly and try to make sure that all six parties here are comfortable and on board with this process. I think this first session will be exploratory in nature to see what kind of support there is for going forward on this.

We feel that its time is overdue in Northeast Asia in trying to establish multilateral structures. We believe the Six-Party process, while it has by no means finished its own job of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, nonetheless has shown a certain durability, shown a certain cohesiveness and has begun to show some progress. And so we hope that we can begin to talk about further issues as we go forward.

QUESTION: [Do you expect Mr. ElBaradei to make a statement after the briefing?]

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Don't expect to make any statement. He's giving us a briefing; we'll ask some questions. I don't plan to have a statement, and you'll have to ask him. But I suspect that he will feel that he's already made his statement to the media. Probably I'll be willing to talk about how we did in the security dialogue at the end of the day.

OK, bye-bye

Released on March 16, 2007