Chris Hill With Reporters at Six-Party Talks

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 18, 2007

QUESTION: Good morning.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Good morning. I'm just off to a meeting that I'm a little late to already to see Mr. Wu Dawei. I think after that we have another meeting planned with the DPRK. Then I think we'll do some additional bilats and end up probably with a plenary for the denuclearization working group. That is the plan today, so I'd better get going.

QUESTION: The DPRK meeting, is that with Mr. Kim?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: No, it is not with Mr. Kim. It is just some people in our delegation. I think we are going to go over some questions that they may have.

QUESTION: Is it follow-up on BDA?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: We'll find out.

QUESTION: So will you be meeting with Mr. Kim at any time today?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I'm not sure about his plan today. Definitely tomorrow, but I'm not sure about today.

QUESTION: How confident are you that after you sit down with the North Koreans the BDA thing will be resolved?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, I'm pretty confident because I think we have a pretty reasonable position, and I think it meets everyone's interests. I'm pretty confident we can resolve it, but I really don't want to go into details until we've resolved it. I mean, we've resolved it from our point of view, and now we have to explain it to everyone's satisfaction.

QUESTION: Is the meeting with Wu Dawei going to be related to the BDA?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I don't know. He asked to see me. It may be in the context of the meetings he's had with heads of delegation. I haven't met with him separately since Friday around noontime. We may just be reviewing the results of the first day of the denuclearization working group. I'm really not sure. Or we could be talking about his ideas for what he wants to do tomorrow. He makes a practice of meeting with all the heads of delegation.

QUESTION: How would you respond to the sort of mixed signals from the North Koreans on the BDA?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, when Kim Gye-gwan arrived yesterday you heard him say that they have not had explanations from us. That was true because they weren't here, but we've since had a meeting with them - as of yesterday afternoon. So it may be a follow-up to that meeting.

QUESTION: What sense did you get from the meeting yesterday?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: From the DPRK we had the sense that they understood the position much better. So we'll see. This BDA issue has been a tough issue for the past 18 months, but I'm pretty confident it's not going to be a problem as we go forward. The real issue is to get to this next stage, denuclearization - after the 60 days - get to the next stage of disablement, declaration. I think those issues will be the real focus of what we're doing today.

QUESTION: What's going to be discussed at the trilateral meeting today?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I think there's a trilateral meeting but we'd also - the United States - we'd also like to have meetings with the Chinese and Russian technical people as well. As I emphasized, we're not just interested in stopping with the 60 days or even stopping with disablement; we want to continue and implement the full September agreement. That will involve the eventual abandonment of actual fissile materials and weapons.

QUESTION: What about the sub-working groups on HEU? Will you be talking about that further?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Yes, I'd like to get that fully scheduled, because we have to do that before there's a declaration.

QUESTION: (Inaudible)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I think it'll be the same thing. The HEU issue is not just our issue; other delegations have also been very concerned about it. The ROK in particular raised it yesterday. I think we have to resolve it to everyone's satisfaction, not just to our satisfaction. But, really, the Chinese will not be very satisfied if I'm late for the meeting. I've really got to go. I'll see you all later.

QUESTION: When do you think you will you return to the hotel?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Oh, I don't know -- very late. I'll be here at two in the morning or so. No, I imagine sometime in the middle of the afternoon.

QUESTION: The meeting will be in Diaoyutai?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I think so, yes. OK, see you later. Bye-bye.

Released on March 18, 2007

ENDS

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