Press Availability With Director General Kenichiro Sasae

So we hope that as we make progress on this, as we quicken the pace, we will also -- in addition to quickening the pace -- we will strengthen the foundation by which we will be able to deal with the abduction issue in a positive manner to get results on that issue. I want to emphasize that even though I think we have made important progress in the last few days in getting the talks back on to the issue of denuclearization, we have a long way to go. And those of us who deal with this are very aware of the fact that this is a step-by-step process, with many steps to come.

So, once again, it's a great pleasure to be here in Tokyo. It's a great pleasure to be here with Director General Sasae. We look forward to continuing our very close cooperation as we try to make progress on this difficult issue.

QUESTION: Mr. Sasae said that the BDA issue has been basically resolved. Does it mean that you have confirmed all the funds have been transferred to a bank account in Russia?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I think is everyone has heard, the money was passed from Macau to the Russian central bank, and ,as we understand, it has been now transferred to the DPRK bank accounts. But I think you'll have to ask the DPRK that, because we are not directly engaged with that. But we do understand that by now the money has been passed and that we can stop asking and stop answering questions on banking and get back to what we really need to do, which is to make progress on the Six-Party process.

QUESTION: You said that the Six-Party Talks will be resumed at appropriate time. So are you saying that you will have to confirm that North Korea has completed the first-phase measures? After that, do you think that it will be appropriate timing to resume the Six-Party Talks?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: We look forward to convening the talks at a very early date, probably in July. I would like it sooner rather than later. But the real purpose would be to focus on the next phase, because we have had considerable discussions about the initial phase. And we're confident that the initial phase will begin to be implemented in, literally, the days ahead. As you know, the IAEA will be in the DPRK next week at this time. And so we hope that will move ahead, and then the Six-Party Talks can focus on the next phase.

As you know, there's a considerable amount of fuel oil involved, so we have to figure out how the DPRK can absorb this amount of fuel oil. Meanwhile, the DPRK also has considerable obligations, including the obligation to disable the nuclear facilities. So there's a lot of work there, and that will require considerable Six-Party coordination. So I think you'll see a lot of bilateral meetings in the coming few days and a lot of effort to try to coordinate as we try to regain the momentum and make up for some lost time.

QUESTION: You would like to see the work in the working group between North Korea and Japan proceeding. That progress is not really moving forward. In order for that working group to move on, what kind of roles that you think America can play?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, first of all, to be frank, I think a number of the working groups did not get as much done as we wanted them to do. And so I think we all have to redouble our efforts to try to make these working groups more productive. I thought it was encouraging that we were able to schedule this Japan-North Korea working group. In fact, it was scheduled, I think, very closely with the U.S.-North Korea working group. But, clearly, we need to make more progress in the next sessions and certainly will be consulting on how we might be able to do that.

QUESTION: There’s been a report of a short-range missile being fired by North Korea just shortly a while ago.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I can’t really comment on it. I’ve just heard about the report.