Chris Hill With Reporters at Six-Party Talks

Afternoon Walkthrough With Reporters at Six-Party Talks

Christopher R. Hill, Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
St. Regis Hotel
Beijing, China
March 18, 2007

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I have nothing to tell you -- nothing.

QUESTION: How was Mr. Wu Dawei?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: How was Mr. Wu Dawei? He's very good. We're going to have a 4 o'clock head of delegation meeting today to summarize the working group and then to get ready for tomorrow's Six-Party meeting. So I don't have any news for you.

QUESTION: Did you talk about the BDA issue?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I told Mr. Wu Dawei, I gave him some more details about how it's been resolved. And I look forward to seeing Danny Glaser later today and talking to him about his conversations in Macau. I can assure you this is not going to be a problem for the Six Party Talks.

QUESTION: Did you talk to Mr. Wu Dawei mostly about the BDA issue?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: No, actually we talked about denuclearization and how we can move quickly through this next phase.

QUESTION: Have you meet with Mr. Kim Gye-gwan?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: No, I haven't met with him today. He's told us all that he'll meet with us all tomorrow.

QUESTION: And that will be bilaterally?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I'll probably meet him bilaterally tomorrow, yes.

QUESTION: Regarding a visit to Pyongyang -

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I am not aware of any visit to Pyongyang at this time.

QUESTION: Is the possibility getting higher or lower than before?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I don't know. There's some sort of media report, but I don't know anything about it.

QUESTION: Do you have any idea about when you'll meet with Mr. Glaser today?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I think he's coming in later this afternoon, so I'll probably see him after the wrap-up of the working groups.

QUESTION: Will he meet with the North Koreans?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I don't know what his plans are. We'll talk about that.

QUESTION: After the Six Party Talks do you have U.S.-DPRK working groups in New York?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Yes, we had our working group meeting in New York. We haven't scheduled a second meeting yet. I'm sure we will, but we haven't scheduled it yet. I don't think we have anything further on that at this time. We want to really define the next phase - which involves disabling of their nuclear programs and involves a considerable amount of fuel oil on our part and probably some other things.

QUESTION: I have one more question. When you saw Mr. ElBaradei did he tell you which facilities in Yongbyon North Korea will shut down and be sealed?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: He did not have detailed discussions about that but he's looking forward to doing that with the North Koreans very soon. We had some discussions with him about our views on that. So we don't have a problem on what needs to be shut down.

QUESTION: What time will you be back here in the evening?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: You want me to make your job easy for you now? No, I don't have a plan. I'm not sure how long I'll be here.

OK, see you later.

Released on March 18, 2007

ENDS

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