Briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

A/S HILL: Well,first of all,what we did in Berlin -- and I was just having a discussion about it upstairs with Minister Song Min-soon and Chun Young-woo -- was to... First of all, we had talked with Song Min-soon and Chun Young-woo in Washington a couple of weeks ago about the possibility that I could see our DPRK counterpart in Berlin because of a coincidence of schedules. So, we agreed that, with Secretary Rice, that I would go to Berlin; I would see Mr. Kim Kye-gwan, we would discuss the way forward on the Six-Party Talks, and then after that I would come right to Seoul. And so that's why I'm here.

So I was able to report to Song Min-soon and Chun Young-woo about what the discussion was in Berlin. In Berlin we had several sessions which lasted over the course of several days - over three days we had three sessions. And essentially what we discussed was the way forward on the Six-Party Talks. As you know, we had hoped to make more progress than we did in December. And our hope is that, as we get ready for the talks -- which we do expect to be soon, although it depends on the Chinese hosts and the ability of the Chinese hosts to get everyone together - but we would expect it to be in the next, you know, couple of weeks or something like that. Maybe a little more. It depends. We want to make sure that we make progress, because we were disappointed by the lack of progress in December.

So, I don't want to discuss with you the precise elements of what I discussed with Mr. Kim Kye-gwan. I know that is a great disappointment to you. But you have to understand that if I discussed all these things publicly, it would make the job even more difficult. And so I would rather not do that, except to say that I think we do have the basis - this time I am pretty convinced that we have the basis for a good session of the Six-Party Talks.

So, what I would like to do is - I've just had an opportunity to consult with our Korean colleagues. Tomorrow I want to have the same opportunity to discuss with our Japanese colleagues. Then, I think very importantly, I will have the opportunity to speak with Wu Dawei, who is the chairman of our Six-Party process. And I'll talk to him about what I heard in Berlin, but also what I've heard in Seoul and Tokyo. And we hope we can schedule the Six-Parties as soon as possible.

Q: Can you at least tell us if the North Koreans brought its positions on the U.S. offers that were made in the Beijing talks in December?

A/S HILL: Well, again, we had a very useful exchange. And I think, on that basis, I feel we are going to be able to make some progress at the next session. Certainly, in discussing the issues and discussing what is important to get done, we certainly agreed with my DPRK counterpart on a number of issues. And I can see from the KCNA statement that the DPRK positively assessed what we did in Berlin. But, I want to emphasize that we were not in Berlin [to negotiate]. It was all an issue of exchanging views.

Negotiations for this take place among the Six Parties. And between Six-Party meetings we've always had the possibility - and I think it's very necessary - to have meetings with participants in the Six Parties. That's what I'm doing today in Seoul. That's what I did the other day in Berlin. That's what I'll do tomorrow in Tokyo. But the actual negotiations, the actual agreements as such, are Six-Party agreements. So whether the meetings in Berlin were successful or not, we have to wait until we have a Six-Party agreement. And on that basis, I can tell you whether it was a good meeting in Berlin.

Q: [inaudible]

A/S HILL: Well, what we were discussing, what we've been discussing actually since really the end of October, is the need to make real progress in implementing the September Joint Statement and to find elements that we can push forward and begin to implement. And so, obviously, the discussions that we've been having between the Six-Party meetings have been dedicated to identifying elements that we can move forward on.

Q: Has there been any progress on the BDA issue? What do you think of claims, like from the British-American Tobacco Council, that there is some legitimate money?

A/S HILL: Well, I understand why you ask me about BDA, but I don't do BDA. I do denuclearization. I mentioned that a few times. Certainly we felt that the BDA discussions that we had with the DPRK in Beijing in December were very useful discussions. We look forward to another round of those, perhaps as early as next week.

We need to work out the precise timing and the precise place. But we look forward to continuing those discussions, because we did feel that they were very useful when we had them in Beijing. So, again, I don't do the BDA discussions, so I'm not in a position to tell you precisely where they are in terms of eventual resolution -- except to say that they were useful in Beijing, and we look forward to doing it again very soon.

So, thank you very much. See you all later. I'm going out to dinner. Unfortunately, no sundubu tonight.

Q: Where are you going to watch the Patriots game?