Evening Walkthrough With Reporters at Six-Party Talks

So, I think I will go to bed. See you later.

QUESTION: What is the problem now? The Russians are saying that they have trouble sending money via New York.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: It’s not via New York. It has nothing to do with New York. It has to do with getting their -- they are trying to move bank accounts from Macau to another bank, and they have to fill out a lot of forms. To move the bank accounts from Macau, they have to arrange for how it’s wired to the other bank. It’s a lot of details. It’s very boring. It has very little to do with denuclearization.

QUESTION: But nothing with U.S. regulations?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: No, not directly. So that has to be worked out. I assume it will be. But what we’ve got do is get on with, I think I’ve mentioned to you we have three issues. One was reviewing the working groups. We did that. The second was reviewing the sixty-day actions. We kind of started that. And then the third is reviewing the next phase, and we haven’t even gotten to that. I think the Chinese are hopeful that we can address some of those in the next day or two. As you know the DPRK delegation seems to be under fairly strict instructions from Pyongyang not to do too much negotiating on this unless the money issue is transferred.

QUESTION: Sir, can you review for us what you did today? Did you have any bilateral meetings?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Yes, I had a bilateral meeting with the North Koreans. I had a bilateral meeting with the Chinese, a fairly lengthy one. We also had a bilateral meeting with the South Koreans, and I also talked with Mr. Sasae, the Japanese. There was also a plenary meeting today to discuss the way ahead. It was at the plenary meeting that the Chinese asked us to all stay at least a day or two.

QUESTION: And in your bilateral meeting with the North Koreans, can you tell what you discussed?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: We talked a little about this bank account issue and agreed that these are technical matters that technical people need to address. Then we talked a little about the way ahead on denuclearization issues, which is why I am here.

QUESTION: In the sixty-day period or --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Yes, actually we talked about the sixty- day period -- because, obviously, I want to make sure that even though things have been, frankly, rather slow, that we are still on track to get this done by the day 60, which I believe we are.

QUESTION: Is North Korea just being really unreasonable here? Could this have been all avoided?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: We resolved our role in this BDA issue several days ago. The issue has come down to do some technical questions of getting their bank accounts moved. In my opinion, they should not have tried to hold up discussions about denuclearization. This is not a session where we are trying to make a fundamental decision, where we are trying to reach an agreed statement. We are simply trying to have some understandings of the way forward. And I would think we could have done more of that, despite the fact that these technical issues remain unmoving, this $25 million or so.

QUESTION: Mr. Hill, the question, the issue -- why can’t the Bank of China accept this money when the greatest powers of the world are handling this issue? It’s only $25 million; it’s not $2.5 billion.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Why you don’t ask them? I have the same question.

QUESTION: Mr. Ambassador, I was just wondering whether you think it will be resolved, whether you will be able to get to talk about these measures that you have to take after the sixty days?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Yes I do. I think it will be resolved. My prediction – I mean, I hope no one is taking bets on this – but my prediction is we can resolve this and get on the sixty-day schedule. I also think we have a pretty good idea of what we need to do in the coming session. I hate to talk about being an optimist in this business. We’ve discussed that before. But I do feel we know what the elements are. And as we look at that coming phase -- where I’m sure the North Koreans will want all of our things front-loaded while they back-load all of their issues -- I think there are a finite number of elements there, and we should be able to work something out.

QUESTION: Mr. Hill, have the North Koreans indicated that they’re coming back to the talks tomorrow?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Yes. They were at the plenary today, and in the bilateral they acknowledged these are technical matters with respect to the bank accounts, and I am not a technical person with respect to bank accounts.

QUESTION: So they will be joining the talks even though the money might not be transferred by tomorrow?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, you’ll have to ask them, but certainly they participated in this plenary. They indicated that they were prepared to stay another day. My own view was we should either have a recess, or we should stay and work. But I don’t want to stay and have a recess. We need to really get some work done if we’re going to stay. So those are the conditions that I had for staying, and the Chinese assured us that they could resolve these bank account issues.

QUESTION: Do the North Koreans agree to engage in substantial discussions?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I don’t think it was put in that way. It was actually the Chinese asking whether anyone would object to staying another day and having substantial discussions, and no one spoke up. I think the Chinese and the North Koreans had a discussion, and I think it was maybe on that basis that they assessed that these banking issues would be resolved by tomorrow. I thought they were being resolved four days ago, so I’m not going to make that prediction right now.

QUESTION: Ambassador Hill, you said that the Chinese have asked one or two more days, and you’ve agreed one day for tomorrow. Basically what you’re looking at is, if this banking issue is not resolved tomorrow, you’re going to decide to go home?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: We’ll look at the situation tomorrow, but I don’t want to wait around all day while technical people deal with bank issues. I think I mentioned to you earlier, that’s not why we’re here. I would expect to get something done tomorrow. When the Chinese hosts ask us to stay, I’m not inclined to disagree with them. I’d just like to put down some markers that we need to be working rather than waiting.

QUESTION: If you go home, and you don’t get a chance to talk substantively to the North Koreans, do you think that will set back the timetable for the sixty days?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: We have to see how that works. But I think the sixty day timetable, with respect to what needs to be done with the Yongbyon reactor, I think we still have some days go before we have to worry whether that can be met.

One more question. Yes.

QUESTION: Earlier today, you mentioned something about forms being filled out --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Yes. Do you want to help?

QUESTION: Did the North Koreans fill out all the forms that needed to be filled?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I don’t know. They said they have. They have to do with bank accounts in Macau, and they have to fill out some forms. We had heard that was done, and then we checked and we found it wasn’t done. And so I don’t know. They said they’ve been working on them this evening.

QUESTION: Ambassador Hill, you said that the North Koreans were at the plenary today. What needs to happen tomorrow for those conversations to be substantive?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: The plenary was kind of short, and we didn’t get into the substantive issue that we want to discuss, which is the sixty-day clock. Again, I don’t think there is a lot to discuss there. But there is a lot to discuss about the next phase, because that’s when we have to have a complete declaration from the North Koreans, that’s when we have to have a disabling of the nuclear facilities. So there is a lot to do in that next phase, and I don’t want us to wait three weeks or four weeks until we meet again to start hammering out what the sequence of those undertakings will look like in the next phase. We need to get a discussion going now, and I would have expected that to have happened a couple of days ago. So I’d say we are a couple of days late.

Hey, I really need to get moving here. Good to see you.

QUESTION: Tomorrow’s schedule?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: We haven’t heard from the Chinese. They said they’d be in touch. We haven’t heard, but when we do, we’ll let you know.

OK. Good night.