U.S. Relations with the People's Republic of China (2006)

U.S. Department of State

Interview With Jack Rice of the Jack Rice Show

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Washington, DC
November 2, 2006

(1:08 p.m. EST)

QUESTION: Madame Secretary, thank you for joining me.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be with you.

QUESTION: I certainly appreciate it today. We're looking at North Korea right now. They stay they're coming back to the table. The best card they have is that nuclear device that they just tested. Why would they ever, ever, under any circumstances, want to give that up?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I think that what we've seen is that when the international community speaks with one strong voice, perhaps countries begin to see that they don't have very good options. And the North Koreans are -- have been slapped with sanctions under Resolution 1718, Chapter 7 sanctions, China joining in those sanctions. We have been working with our partners around the world to use defensive measures to guard against some of the North Korean financial activities and other activities that are funding their illicit networks. And so perhaps they are beginning to realize that whatever value they may think the nuclear weapons program has, it's just going to deepen their isolation. But we'll have a chance to see when they come to the talks.

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QUESTION: I know that Ambassador Hill has just made some pretty significant breakthroughs talking with the North Koreans, with the Chinese, and apparently they're coming to the table. Others have said, you know what, there is no chance of success, the North Koreans are great at pushing this right to the edge, stepping up to the talks, and then walking away. Are there carrots and sticks to sort of force them, to keep them at the table?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, there are certainly both carrots and sticks. First of all, the major stick now is that we do have under Resolution 1718 sanctions on North Korea, including sanctions on luxury goods for their elites, who love to get luxury goods while the people try to scrounge and find food. And so we do have sticks. We have sanctions.

We also have -- the North Koreans can look at the potential of integration into the international system. They can look at the potential of economic assistance, energy assistance. But they're going to have to give up their nuclear weapons in order to gain that benefit.

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QUESTION: We're talking with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. This just came out this morning. Russia and China indicated they would not support the draft UN resolution imposing tough sanctions on Iran. If we can't get the Russians and the Chinese to the table -- very close partners with the Iranians -- then how do we have the ability to isolate them at all?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, there's some negotiating going on here. Russia and China have agreed that we will have Chapter 7, Article 41, it's called -- that's the sanctions measures inside the United Nations -- and they have agreed, agreed to this when we were recently in London. Now we are negotiating about what they will be, what those sanctions will be. And this statement relates to a particular draft that the Europeans put forward. But we'll get a sanctions resolution.

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