Remarks by Christopher R. Hill
Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
Night Departure, Din Tai Fung Restaurant
Beijing, China
October 31, 2007
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Wow, you guys! Did you get any dinner or anything?
QUESTION: How did the talks go?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: This wasn’t a negotiating session. This was just a discussion about the current phase that we are in and the need to keep making progress. And so it was a good discussion in that regard. I think we are looking forward to getting through these very busy two months. We talked about all aspects of it -- the disablement aspect; we also talked about having the ministerial during this timeframe. I thought, importantly, we talked about moving into the next year and really getting this job done. So it was a good discussion.
QUESTION: How was the atmosphere?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: The atmosphere was very good, very business-like, very good.
QUESTION: Did you make any more progress on the outstanding dismantlement issues.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: We are in pretty good shape on this disablement. Dismantlement will come at the beginning of the new year. But I think we are really in sync on the disablement. We understand we have a lot of work ahead of us.
QUESTION: Do you have a discussion tomorrow, as well?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: No. Tomorrow I think I’m going to go out to Beijing University to speak to some Chinese students. Then I have to get on the plane and head off to Seoul, and after Seoul I’ll go to Tokyo.
QUESTION: Do [inaudible] more discussion on the terrorism list?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: No, we discussed that this morning, so we really didn’t have much to talk about tonight. I think the plan is to discuss what the requirements are and to move ahead from there.
Okay? So, we’ll see you all later.
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