Evening Walkthrough With Reporters at the Six-Party Talks

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

ASST. SECRETARY HILL: Good evening. How are you? Today we did the Northeast Asian security working group. We also earlier in the day met with Mr. ElBaradei, and then I met with Wu Dawei, and of course had a lot of telephone calls.

Tomorrow, we have the denuclearization working group, obviously a very important and very urgent working group. We hope that on Monday, when we have the Six-Party Talks, we'll be able to assess all these working groups and look at the way ahead. I think what's important about the Six-Party meeting on Monday is to assess where we are after 30 days. I would say we are in pretty good shape after 30 days. But now the next 30 days will involve some very serious implementation, including getting the IAEA into the DPRK and beginning the process of shutting down and sealing the reactor and reprocessing plant; and also beginning the fuel aid assistance.

QUESTION: The North Korean declaration, is that going come tomorrow, of their nuclear program?

ASST. SECRETARY HILL: I'm sorry?

QUESTION: The declaration --

ASST. SECRETARY HILL: No, tomorrow we will be discussing their nuclear programs and really having the beginning of the discussion of the declaration that will be made sometime in the second phase, to be determined precisely when in the second phase.

QUESTION: That would be after the 60 days?

ASST. SECRETARY HILL: Yes. The second phase begins the next day. One of the things the energy working group discussed yesterday was the provision of fuel oil during that second phase. The provision of fuel oil during the second the phase needs to be synched up with the obligations that the DPRK has during the second phase. They have two important obligations. One of them is a complete declaration of their nuclear programs. We have to have a clear picture of the HEU - highly-enriched uranium - issue before making that complete declaration. And then, of course, disabling the Yongbyon facility.

There was some discussion of the fuel oil part of that yesterday. Tomorrow, there will obviously be discussion of the denuclearization part.

QUESTION: Do you have a sense of the North Korean response to the Treasury Department's action on the bank?

ASST. SECRETARY HILL: We haven't had a chance to talk yet to the North Koreans about that, and I look forward to doing that tomorrow when Mr. Kim Gye-gwan arrives.

QUESTION: Ambassador Hill, on that, I don't mean to beat the BDA issue…

ASST. SECRETARY HILL: You'd never do that. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: But you keep on talking about how you need to have consultations, how you need to provide them with assurances. Is there some concern that they may have misinterpreted the Treasury action or the Treasury resolution?

ASST. SECRETARY HILL: No, but I think the BDA issue has to some extent concerned the North Koreans very directly. It's concerned a lot of their accounts. Obviously, we want to give them a direct briefing and explain what is involved. We're doing the same with the Chinese. I'm sure we will have an understanding about that, and then we'll go forward.

QUESTION: And to this point, you haven't gotten any indication whatsoever from the North Koreans since the ruling has come out?

ASST. SECRETARY HILL: No, but fair enough, because they haven't heard directly from us on the issue. Tomorrow will be the first opportunity to sit down with them. I did not do that in New York because it was too early. But now we know precisely what it is, and we'll have a good discussion about it.

QUESTION: Is there a date when they will get that cash that they are talking about? Or is that up to the Macau authorities?

ASST. SECRETARY HILL: That will be up to the Macau monetary authorities, to return accounts to them. I'm not sure what day that is. I don't know how fast they are able to work.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, you are half-way through the 60 days at this point. I know Mr. ElBaradei was not able to meet with the top person he wanted to talk to --

ASST. SECRETARY HILL: That's not true. He was actually invited by their atomic energy minister. According to Mr. ElBaradei's account of things, he had very good discussions in the DPRK and was entirely satisfied with his visit there. They have a plan for follow-on discussions with the DPRK -- as they get closer to what will be an IAEA board meeting, probably at the end of March or the beginning of April -- and then actually deploy their team into the DPRK.

QUESTION: My question is, you have less than 30 days left. How long does it take to close this plant? Is there a deadline for doing this? Is it something that can be done within a matter of days? I don't know how you do this or how the timing works.

ASST. SECRETARY HILL: That's best posed to Mr. ElBaradei rather than to me. But my understanding is that this can be done in a matter of a week or a matter of days and that the expectation is that they would have this done by day 60. We emphasized to Mr. ElBaradei that we realize the IAEA has some internal procedures of its own, starting with a meeting of its board of governors, but for us it's very important that they meet the 60 days. We have really worked very hard -

QUESTION: Who is "they"?

ASST. SECRETARY HILL: The IAEA - to get there and to be able to monitor the shutdown of the plant.

So we are on schedule. We have come here to Beijing to get these working groups done during this 30-day period, and we want to continue to be on schedule.

QUESTION: Mr. Hill, you met the Vice Minister, Vice Foreign Minister Wu today. What was his reaction to the BDA decision? Did he repeat what the Chinese foreign minister said yesterday, or was he little bit nicer to you?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Mr. Wu is always very nice and a real gentleman. We had a very good, very fruitful discussion about that. I must tell you honestly that every time we meet Wu Dawei and his team, it's a very good discussion. So no problems on that.

QUESTION: There is no difference in understanding about the resolution on the BDA between you and Mr. Wu?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Part of why I wanted to see him today -- and of course, we have Mr. Glaser coming into Macao, I think tonight -- is to relay the details of the Treasury Department decision. So, I think there is an understanding of what we are doing and an understanding that we fulfilled the terms of our commitment to resolve this within 30 days.

I think we are in good shape and maybe in a couple of days you'll be forgetting the BDA issue. We will be moving on to other issues.

QUESTION: So that did seem to alleviate some of the Chinese concerns about the issue?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I'd like to think it did, but you probably need to ask them.

QUESTION: In tomorrow's working group, will you establish any subcommittee or expert-level committee?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I think that's a good question. We have to try to get ourselves organized in this denuclearization working group. Certainly the issue of the highly-enriched uranium does need to be addressed. It's very important that it be addressed before any complete declaration. We'll have to see how we will handle that, either in this denuclearization working group or through some sort of subgroup.

In the past, the DPRK has very clear that they are prepared to discuss this with us and to achieve a mutually satisfactory resolution. Of course, we have to figure out what will look like, and we have to make sure we have the right people there to discuss this. But from my point of view, this is an issue that must be addressed and that must be resolved -- because we can't have a complete declaration unless there's been a complete understanding of the highly-enriched uranium issue.

And I might add that the Northeast Asia security mechanism talk, discussion, was very good today. There was a real willingness to look ahead and to try to assess the kinds of issues that can be addressed in this, a feeling that maybe Northeast Asia should try to pick up the pace. When you look at the regional structures, regional integration in other parts of the world -- whether we are talking Southeast Asia or Europe or even other places - that perhaps more needs to be done in Northeast Asia. I was very pleased to see a real meeting of the minds around the table, and I think all six delegations gave very good suggestions and proposals for looking ahead on that.

QUESTION: Did you raise the missile issue?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: The missile issue is expected to come up in the context of this issue. I can't say with precision whether it was addressed in this first discussion, but we do expect the missile issue to be a subject for this Northeast Asia security mechanism.

QUESTION: What about tomorrow?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Tomorrow, I am looking forward to meeting my Japanese counterpart, Mr. Ken Sasae, who I think gets in on a very late flight tonight from Tokyo. We will meet tomorrow. We will have the denuclearization working group, and I also look forward to meeting with Mr. Kim Gye-gwan to discuss BDA and anything else that might be on his mind.

QUESTION: Doyou have a time for that meeting yet?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I don't think we have a time. It depends on the Air Koryo flight getting in from Pyongyang.

QUESTION: On North Korea, previously did you give them any sense that the Treasury action might follow this type of scenario that it has. Did they - have you talked to them about this before?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: The issue really came up in New York in only very general terms. So we have not really had a discussion about it. Obviously, they know something about it, but we thought it was important to sit down with them tomorrow and discuss this. I thought of even doing it earlier, but we looked at Mr. Kim Gye-gwan's schedule. We thought we'd wait until he arrived in Beijing in order to do that.

QUESTION: Ambassador, how about your plans for tonight?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I am going to go to dinner.

QUESTION: And I understand that you won't talk any more this evening, is that correct?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: And I will not talk again. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: Until tomorrow morning?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I will be leaving here sometime fairly early in the morning to meet Mr. Sasae, but I doubt I will have anything new between dinner and going to the meeting with Mr. Sasae. So I would take the rest of the night off, if I could make that suggestion.

Okay, see you later.

QUESTION: Thank you. Good night.

Released on March 16, 2007