Early Morning Walk-Through With Reporters at the Six-Party Talks

QUESTION: Waiting up for you.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, we had a fairly long day today. Basically, what happened was the – We spent the day narrowing a lot of these differences. Late tonight – or, I guess, this morning – the Chinese called a meeting of the Six-Party heads of delegation to distribute what they described as the final text. So I think the participants are referring the text to capitals. I think we’ll have another meeting tomorrow – tomorrow morning – of the Six Parties, and we’ll see if we can get approval of this thing. So it was a long day and a lot of effort by a lot of people. A number of things happened here. There was a number of bilateral meetings, including a DPRK-Japan meeting. And so, I think we’ve made a lot of progress. So much so that the Chinese felt pretty secure in distributing a final text. But, it has to be approved, so we’ll have a meeting tomorrow.

QUESTION: Any change in North Korea’s position?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, I think everybody had to make some changes to try to narrow the differences. So let’s get the thing approved, and then we can talk “who did what.” But I think there were certainly a lot of efforts on a lot of sides. I think the Chinese worked very hard to circulate this text to try to [inaudible] all the – everyone’s concerns. And now it will be up to the Chinese to get approval – formal approval – from the different delegations. I think the Chinese will certainly be up to that task. It’s not easy, but I think they’ll be able to do it. And we’ll see.

QUESTION: Will this final text have specific figures insofar as energy aid, and also the commitments that North Korea is willing to sign on to?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I think so. I think there are commitments among a number of parties, including the DPRK. I don’t want to – I can’t. I’m sorry to disappoint, but – because you stayed up really late for this – but I don’t really want to get into specific elements of it until this thing is approved, and then I’d be happy to talk about it until you are tired of hearing about it.

QUESTION: When do you think Washington’s going to give you approval on it?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I have been in constant communication with Washington. I’ve spoken to Secretary Rice on many occasions this evening. Certainly people will need to look at it, including Secretary Rice, of course. But we believe the Chinese have done really an excellent job. We’re really full of praise for the Chinese. But I’d like to say that the – all the delegations did a great job. I must say, it’s a multilateral negotiation.

There are difficulties when you try to get all six sides, because everyone – many delegations have specific issues they need to work on. But I’m encouraged by this, in many respects. I’m encouraged that we might be able make a real step forward on nuclearization issue – denuclearization issue on the Korean Peninsula. But I’m encouraged by the fact that these delegations work so well together. And I think just all goes well if you can get this denuclearization issue. I think this Six-Party process could carry us further. Carry us further and deal with, as I mentioned to you before, some of the underlying issues that have – historical issues that have bedeviled this region.

So, it’s totaled a lot of work, and I guess I’ve complimented the other delegations. I’d like to compliment some of the people in my delegation, too. People really worked hard today. So, let’s see if we can get it all done tomorrow.

QUESTION: Mr. Ambassador, does the final draft seem more likely to be approved [inaudible]?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I’m sorry?

QUESTION: Does the final draft seem more likely to be approved?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I see. Well, the way the process works is you have a first draft, and you have a lot of differences, and you try to narrow them, so that when you put out a final draft, your expectation is that you’ve met everyone’s concerns, and that you’ve narrowed those concerns down. That’s what we’ve been doing here for the last five days -- seems like five weeks. So, yes, I think there’s a – one would hope that we can all agree on this [inaudible].

QUESTION: Might we see another extension tomorrow?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: [Laughter] I don’t know. Are you running out of shirts? What’s your problem? No, I think we’d hoped to finish this today. Yesterday, now, I guess. But the Chinese asked us to stay on today. So we’re doing that. In these negotiations you stay as long as it takes and as long as you’re making progress.

QUESTION: Between Sunday-Monday, what or who shifted to – ?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: [Laughs] Look, I’ve love to get into a tick-tock with you, but let’s get the thing approved. Then we can talk about how this happened. But we don’t have a final approval yet, and that’s very important to get.

QUESTION: Sorry, just to clarify – pending approval from all the countries’ capitals -- this is going to be the deal, right?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I’m sorry?

QUESTION: Pending approval from all the countries’ capitals, this is going to be [inaudible] tomorrow, is that right?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Yes. That’s the plan.

QUESTION: How confident are you that [inaudible] is going to approve it?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, the Chinese worked this text through the day and through the night – through the morning – and a lot of it was for showing the text to the DPRK delegation. So they have seen every word that’s in this text. It was on the basis that all the parties had agreed that this was the way to go that the Chinese called us all together and gave what is described as a final draft – final text. We’ll see. The DPRK sometimes, you know, they’ll want to make some points, want to – have things they’ll need to get off their chest. So we’ll have a meeting tomorrow and see where they are. I can’t make predictions, except to say the Chinese worked very hard to make sure all the delegations understood what was in this.

QUESTION: Ambassador Hill, when you left this morning, were you, until then, just trying to wait and hear whether North Korea had a yes or no answer?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I’m sorry?

QUESTION: When you left this morning, you said you were going to just hear whether North Korea had a yes or no answer to what was on the table. Were there immediate signs of progress when you entered the room this morning that kept this going throughout the night?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Oh, it’s never that easy. No. For those people who are not Americans you won’t understand this metaphor, but it’s always like three yards, three yards, three yards. And then it’s always fourth and one, and you make a first down and do three more yards. You – that’s an American football metaphor; I apologize. So, it’s painful. So, you’re never really, really sure. But certainly I think the pace quickens on the last day of any negotiation. That’s why you have deadlines in negotiations. And so this one is no exception. But, again, we’ll have to see how we do tomorrow. I’m – I’ve been doing these things long enough to know that you [inaudible] to get the final approval from everybody. And I’m not going to say anything about chickens and eggs or fertilized or unfertilized. You just have to wait to get – to approve the actual text.

QUESTION: And just to clarify, the U.S. side has not given their approval to the Chinese yet on this?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, we feel it’s an excellent, excellent draft. I don’t think we are the problem, or we would be the problem. I can’t predict everything in that regard, but I think [inaudible] Chinese really worked hard, and we support what the Chinese have been doing.

QUESTION: Mr. Hill, it sounds like some of the issues have been taken out of the multi-party framework. Can you give us any indication of which ones might have been…

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: What do you mean? I’m sorry, they’re all multi-party…

QUESTION: You’ve mentioned a couple times that the multi-party framework won’t solve all of the issues for all of the parties. Are there any that have been taken out and have become bilateral issues?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: No, no. I’m sure what you’re referring to, but no.

QUESTION: What was the impetus for working so late tonight? Did you come very close to clinching it?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: No, it’s just, you know, you’d be surprised how many different ideas there are on how things ought to be expressed and what people are prepared to do. And you’re trying to address the interests of six different countries. It takes time.

QUESTION: Did any new issues crop up? You’ve mentioned before that you were afraid that if there wasn’t a deal that other issues might crop up. Was any of your time spent today dealing with those issues?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Oh yes, things come up. I tell you what, let’s get the final approval, and I’ll come back here and I can give you some horror stories about this sort of thing. But right now let’s just try to – I just want to get the agreement, and then we can talk about things that happened.

QUESTION: So, are there anymore bilats tomorrow or just head of delegations meeting?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I think there’s going to be a head of delegation meeting, and I would hope – I hope we will go to a closing plenary. I hope. But we’ve really got to finally approve this text.

QUESTION: Are you hoping to get on a plane tomorrow?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Oh, I guess that depends what time. One issue is there are time zone problems with getting the text back to home capitals. For example, the Russians – I think they’re something like seven hours behind, something like that. So they have the time zone issue. We’ll see. More likely I’ll just try to spend a relaxing evening tomorrow night.

QUESTION: One official described the North Koreans as more sincere today. Is that something you might go along with?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I don’t know. I don’t know who’s sincere and who’s not, but we all worked very hard on trying to get through this text.

QUESTION: What type of document is it that, hopefully, you could sign tomorrow? Is it a…

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: It’s on paper…

QUESTION: Well, I know that. But is it a treaty, is it an agreement, what kind of…

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: We see it as an implementation agreement, because it’s a follow-up to the September ’05 statement. So, remember, that was a set of principles. Now you got to move the principles into some implementation that leads to some actions.

QUESTION: Mr. Ambassador, is this deal going beyond [inaudible], could you secure the momentum that you have…

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Oh, I don’t want to – We’re pleased with it, and as soon as it’s public, as soon as it’s approved, I’d be happy to describe what’s in it. But let’s just get it approved first. I just don’t want to jinx it really.

QUESTION: Mr. Ambassador, is it going to be a joint statement? And initially –

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Yeah, it’s a joint statement, we believe, yes.

QUESTION: And initially, you said that your initial draft – the problem with the initial draft was one paragraph – was in one paragraph. Are they taken from that paragraph?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Yes, basically. Yes, yes, basically in that paragraph. Pretty much I think everything is the same. There are word changes, and as I mentioned, little things start popping up. I think it’s mainly that one paragraph.

QUESTION: Mr. Ambassador, you have over the last few evenings repeatedly said that this is – could be – more than a process of denuclearization. [inaudible] What do you -- [inaudible] What kind of architecture do you see in terms of security? Is this a new kind of [inaudible]?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: It’ll be easier for me to talk about that when the text is public. I mean when we have an agreement on the text and we’ve publicized the text, and I can describe some of the aspects of it. But we’re trying to do more than just denuclearization for energy, something like that. We’re trying to address some of the underlying problems in the region, which goes to some of the questions of why there are tensions in the Korean Peninsula in the first place. We’d like to address some of the bilateral problems. So, the agreement really offers a framework for proceeding with that.

But, I just hasten to add that this is only one phase of denuclearization. We’re not done; this would be an initial, essentially, some initial actions. So we’ve got a long way to go.

But I think what I found certainly heartening throughout the day, in fact through the five days, was the degree to which various delegations worked together. I don’t think we’ve done that kind of thing in Northeast Asia, in that sort of multilateral context. To be sure, a lot of it in September ’05, but I think there was more of it now. I’m just encouraged by the way we were working together on a common problem. I must say, and I do this not only – not just because I’m in Beijing – I’m just encouraged by the way the U.S. and China are working very closely on this. I think we also worked with all the other partners.

So, we’ll have to see. But let’s get through tomorrow, get this agreement, and then I can describe it to you and show you why I’m encouraged by this type of approach.

QUESTION: Are you talking about how you’re encouraged by all the delegations working together and that it was different today from the past? Are you specifically talking about the DPRK and Japan getting together?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I would say it’s been – the atmosphere generally in Diaoyutai has been pretty good the last few days. We had some disagreements there, but generally the atmosphere was pretty good. Yes, I was pleased that Japan and the DPRK had a meeting together. You’ll have to talk to them about what they discussed. There are some outstanding bilateral issues there, and I hope they were able to get at some of them.

OK, I really ought to, this way past my bed time.

QUESTION: If this document is approved tomorrow, how do you see the process unfolding from here?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: We have to – I don’t think it’s any secret there are working groups that are foreseen in this initial action. And so we need to get the working groups to meet, and then we need to start getting reactions that are called for – getting those done during the period that they’re supposed to be done. We don’t want to miss deadlines, because if you start missing a deadline then other things start missing and before you know it things aren’t getting done. We’re going to have to get moving pretty quickly on some of these working groups – those working groups where presumably we’ll have the sort of technical capabilities to get the things done on the ground; we’ll be able to move ahead.

QUESTION: If you have a successful document, when might the next implementation talks be on your level?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Oh, that’s still to be determined, but I would think probably a month from now; something like that. We have to figure out what’s necessary.

QUESTION: What time tomorrow?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I heard–

QUESTION: Today. Sorry.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Yes, I heard we had a 10:30 meeting. But I think I’ll probably have to leave here around 9:30 or something like that. Which means I really ought to get to bed, so should you.

OK. Thank you. See you tomorrow. Bye-bye.