Remarks to the Media on Six-Party Talks

QUESTION: Yesterday you mentioned that a lot of bilateral meetings will be happening in the near future. Have you contacted North Korea already?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, we are expecting that we will have bilateral meetings with all the Six-Party participants. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get to Moscow yet to talk to my colleague there, Ambassador Losyukov. But we have been in touch through the New York channel with the DPRK. And as we always do before Six-Party Talks, I would expect that we'll have bilateral consultations with all of the parties. So we’re continuing to do that. I've just had a bilateral coordination in Beijing on Monday and then in Seoul on Tuesday and in Tokyo on Wednesday. So I'm planning to leave Tokyo -- actually, I'm going to spend a little more time here -- and then I'll leave very early tomorrow morning.

QUESTION: You changed your schedule and you are going back tomorrow?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Yeah, because I wanted to see some other people here and spend a little more time in Tokyo. I think it was just too quick a visit.

QUESTION: Are you thinking of meeting with the North Korean delegation before Six-Party Talks?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Again, we have tried to do that in the past, and I'm sure we'll try to do that in the future.

QUESTION: Whom are you seeing by extending your stay here?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I think the Embassy is working on several appointments, and I'm going to just spend a little private time here if you don't mind. But don't worry -- don't worry, I'll leave first thing in the morning. I promise not to be too much of a burden.

QUESTION: Mr. Ambassador, speaking of ARF meeting in early August, is there any chance you'll have minister-level meeting of Six Parties?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I think that the ARF is one possible opportunity for having a Six-Party Ministerial, but as with all ministerials, it needs to be well planned. And that's why were concerned about trying to get the Six-Party meeting as soon as possible. But the problem is, we don't want to have a Six-Party meeting before we've gotten going on the shutting down of the reactor and some of the other first-phase implementations. So we have to somehow schedule the six parties in a way that we'll be talking about the next phase and not about the first phase, and then schedule it in a way that we can make progress and prepare adequately -- not only adequately, but do a lot of preparation, because we want this ministerial to be a success and to begin to show the way not only for the next steps and denuclearization but also we think it's time for the ministers to talk a little bit about Northeast Asia security, some of the things that we've talked about in the working groups. We need the ministers to discuss how we might take the Six-Party process and, assuming success in the denuclearization area, talk about a sort of broader means to discuss security issues in Northeast Asia. So we have a lot of work to do and very little time to do it. The ARF would be a good opportunity, but if you start backing away from the calendar of ARF -- ARF is the end of July, beginning of August -- then we need to make sure the first phase is done, and we need to make sure that we have adequate time to prepare materials for the ministers. So we have a lot of work to do.

QUESTION: When would you like to have the Six-Party Talks?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, I think the Chinese have some idea that maybe we could do something early in July. I think we all feel that there needs to be a meeting of heads of delegation, there needs to be a meeting of these working groups, which I think I mentioned have not completed their tasks, and then a full meeting of the Six-Party Talks to prepare, really, for a ministerial. So it's a lot of work to do in July. So maybe I'll take off my necktie during that time, because it's going to be a lot of work during a hot time of year.

QUESTION: You mentioned you haven't met Ambassador Losyukov. Is there any plans for you to maybe visit Moscow?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: You know, I had hoped to do that, but again, it's just a problem of how much time we have. So I think what I'll do is maybe make use of the telephone.

QUESTION: And you’ll be flying out back home?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Back home tomorrow morning, I think, early tomorrow morning. Probably before you wake up, I'll be heading to the airport.

QUESTION: Are you planning a cabinet-level ministerial meeting for the Six-Party Talks [inaudible] before ARF?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: You mean, are we planning to have a ministerial meeting before ARF? I think it would be done around the ARF, either immediately before, immediately after, or actually during the ARF. Again, I mentioned that because of the logistics of the fact that we have all the ministers in the area, in connection with the area, but we haven't fine-tuned the time. But in addition to the logistics and the timing, we also have to work on what the ministers would actually do, and that's why we need to get the Six-Party meeting going. But to do that we need to get denuclearization, we need to get working groups -- so much work.

QUESTION: At this stage earliest possibility of Six-Party Talks might be early in July?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I would think it would be early in July. I'd rather it not be on the Fourth of July, but I would like immediately after the Fourth of July.

QUESTION: What is your current sentiment? How are you feeling today?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I'm very tired, and I did not feel like getting on an airplane this afternoon, so I'm going to get on an airplane very early in the morning.

QUESTION: North Korea is conducting missile testing yesterday. So what is the effect for the Six-Party Talks?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, you know the North Korean army has these tests from time to time. It's a schedule based on their military training and testing program. It's not really a political act in this case, as I understand. We're talking about an exclusion zone to conduct some short-range tests, as I understand it mainly from media sources, by the way. So I don't know, but it's not a political or diplomatic act. Alright, thank you; see you later.