Press Availability in Manila

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, you know I’m already late for the ARF meeting. So maybe after I attend some of the meeting, I can come out and we could talk a little more, okay? About 10:45.

QUESTION: (Inaudible)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: You know, we’re here for the ARF meeting. This is not a Six-Party meeting, so let me talk about it when I come back out at 10:45, okay? I did have a brief meeting with the North Korean last night. We just talked about at the dinner a little bit, not so much about the Six-Party, because he’s here for the ARF meeting.

QUESTION: (Inaudible)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: No, I don’t. I’ll have to study it first.

QUESTION: (Inaudible)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Oh okay. Well, I’ll have to have a look at that. Needless to say I don’t agree with that assertion.

QUESTION: Maybe you haven’t seen the papers --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: No, I didn’t. I've been in some other meetings. Maybe I’ll have plenty of time to see it today.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, how long will you wait for North Korea to comply with their (inaudible)?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Obviously, we have run into some very difficult, technical regulatory legal issues involving this banking matter, and we are making progress on that. I hope we will be able to come up with something soon, but I don’t want to predict the precise date.

QUESTION: (Inaudible)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I’m sorry, what about the elections?

QUESTION: In the Philippines?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Oh, in the Philippines. Yes, because they haven’t had them in North Korea, yet!

QUESTION: Despite the observations of some international observers that there was massive cheating, (inaudible)?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, I know these elections were being monitored, and I know that there have been some problems in some areas. I know there’s some violence too, but overall I think they have been successful.

QUESTION: Do you expect (inaudible) North Korean money?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Yes, I do actually.

QUESTION: Within a month?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I think so, yes.

QUESTION: And do you think that (inaudible)?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, predicting smooth-sailing for the Six-Party talks is always a risk. But I do believe that the DPRK has continued to signal to us privately and publicly -- and most recently last night -- that as soon as the banking matter is resolved, they will move quickly to implement their part of the deal, which is to get the Yongbyon facility shut down.

QUESTION: (Inaudible)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: They said that they would move very quickly to get the international inspectors in and to shut down and seal these facilities.

QUESTION: (Inaudible)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, I’m expecting it very soon. I expected it last month, and I think that we hope that we can get this done this month as well.

QUESTION: When is the next meeting of the Six-Party talks?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: We don’t have a plan yet for a next meeting. We will as soon as we resolve this road block that we’ve been dealing with.

QUESTION: (Inaudible)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I haven’t made a plan to do that, so I don’t know at this point.

QUESTION: Sir, any new concerns raised during the plenary this morning? New concerns and new commitments?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: No. Today, this morning, we had (inaudible), where countries have all made interventions on their view of the region, and I have yet to make mine. So --

QUESTION: (Inaudible)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I’m sorry?

QUESTION: (Inaudible) statement. (Inaudible)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I think we are, I guess. But, again, I’m not prepared to talk about what we’re doing in August yet. So, one more question.

QUESTION: (Inaudible)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: It has been an issue. Banco Delta Asia has essentially been cut off from a number of international transactions because the Treasury Department took a decision that U.S. banks may not deal with them. This has made it difficult for them to deal with our denominated trading. They’ve also had some problems on the Euro side as well. So there have been a number of very difficult regulatory and banking issues that have contributed to making it very problematic to move these accounts.

QUESTION: What were the concerns the U.S. raised this morning?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, we’ve raised first of all the concern about Burma and its human rights record. But we will also be raising our concern that it’s presenting a kind of regional problem as well, because Burma has created a huge flow of refugees. This has been quite a burden to the region. We will say that there has been cooperation on public health. That’s on the positive side, but that there continue to be some very serious problems.