Remarks on Departure at Ulaanbaatar AirportChristopher Hill, Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific AffairsUlaanbaatar, Mongolia June 18, 2007 QUESTION: Do you have good news?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: No, don't have any news today. I am going to Beijing, and I will see the Chinese. And then I will go onto Seoul and Tokyo. So I will see Chun Young Woo and Ken Sasai. We will see whether we can have a Six-Party head of delegation meeting. I look forward to seeing what the Chinese have in mind for that. QUESTION: Have you had any contact from the North Koreans yesterday morning? ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: We talked to them through the New York channel, but we have no indication that they are doing any traveling anytime soon. So probably we won't have any North Korean meeting on this trip. QUESTION: IAEA have said that they have received the letter. Any reaction to that? ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: They told me that they received it and are acting on the invitation and making the trip to Pyongyang as soon as possible. QUESTION: Did they give a date? ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: They haven't given a date, but I am under the impression that they would try to do it as soon as possible. QUESTION: Any changes in the Yongbyon facility? ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I don't know. Occasionally it goes up and down, depending on maintenance issues. I think what has to happen is that the IAEA needs to get there at the working level. I think that it was very important to come at the working level to work out some of the details of how it would be shut down, seals applied, and how the monitoring would be accomplished. So it was a very good step that they sent them the letter, and the IAEA is prepared to move very quickly. QUESTION: What do you expect to today's talk with (inaudible)? ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I would like to hear from him when he would like to get the six parties together. For me, I would sort of target the timeframe of early July. We will probably be discussing things like how many of the February actions do we need to complete and that sort of thing. So we will be talking about the schedule and the way ahead. Also we have been looking forward to the provision of the February agreement that deals with the question of the ministers meeting. So maybe we will have a discussion on when that could happen. QUESTION: (Inaudible) head of delegation meeting or Six-Party Talks? ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: My thought was maybe a head of delegation meeting, but I don't have a strong view on it. I want to consult with my colleagues to see what they think. Released on June 18, 2007 |
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