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

U.S. Department of State

Remarks With Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Benjamin Franklin Room
Washington, DC
December 21, 2006

(1:50 p.m. EST)

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QUESTION: Madame Secretary, on North Korea, have the financial issues and the BDA designation proven to be an insurmountable stumbling block to making progress in the six-party talks this week?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, we've been very clear that these are two separate issues. The BDA issue arises out of investigation of illicit North Korean activities. The North Koreans asked for and have -- we have granted a working group that will examine these issues. The working group, I think, met twice in Beijing. It's likely to meet again in January. And that's the appropriate track for the examination of issues that are related to Banco Delta Asia.

In terms of the six-party talks, those talks, of course, are related to the agreement that the parties signed in September of 2005 which lays out a very clear set of responsibilities and obligations that should be undertaken, and that is what is being negotiated by Ambassador Hill in Beijing. I have said before that it will undoubtedly -- these are difficult issues -- it will take some time. But I understand -- I see fully that the other countries are very devoted to getting an outcome that is concrete for the six-party talks. No one wants to simply have talks for the sake of talks again. As a matter of fact, when Peter and I were last together in Hanoi, we had a breakfast with all of the ministers there for APEC, and around the table there was a very clear message to those of us who were engaged in the six-party talks to have six-party talks that produced results. Now, diplomacy sometimes takes time, but we should not be diverted somehow by an issue that is clearly in another lane and is clearly being dealt with in a way that the North Koreans themselves asked that it be dealt with. We cannot be diverted from what we need to do in the six-party talks, which is to have the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

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2006/1134

Released on December 21, 2006