U.S. Relations With the People's Republic of China (2008)

U.S. Department of State

On-the-Record Briefing by Secretary Rice

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Washington, DC
April 17, 2008

(9:04 a.m. EDT)

SECRETARY RICE: Good morning, everyone. I came by just to take a few of your questions, but I'd like to make a few comments first on several issues.

First, the rapid rise in global food prices is an urgent concern. Those who are hit hardest are the poorest people, and, of course, this is a matter of social justice because no one should have to spend all of their daily wages just to buy their daily bread. Rising food prices are a source of social instability, as we are seeing in a number of places around the globe. There are many causes for rising food prices, from fast-growing global demand to devastating droughts to record high fuel costs. But one thing is clear: This is a current emergency but it has long-term global challenges, and the United States is responding accordingly.

In recent years, the United States has consistently provided more than half of all food aid worldwide. We are now taking further steps. The President pledged this week to provide an additional $200 million to meet unanticipated needs. This is on top of an extra $350 million for emergency food assistance that we are requesting from Congress in our supplemental.

We are also asking Congress for the authority to provide more of our food assistance through locally purchased agriculture. This will enable the hard-earned dollars of the American people to feed even more hungry people.

In the weeks ahead, we hope to announce an even more -- to announce further steps to help ease the burden of rising food prices on the world's neediest people. Ultimately, though, the world must come together to forge a long-term solution to rising prices of food. We need to encourage farmers and transporters, markets and governments to meet this urgent worldwide challenge. One of the most important steps we can take is to successfully complete the Doha round, which would help to increase agricultural productivity and moderate prices.

It's obviously a busy week in terms of the diplomacy. The President, of course, will meet with Prime Minister Brown today and talk about the whole range of issues that we share with our British colleagues. And then tomorrow, he will meet with the new South Korean President, President Lee. Korea is a strategic ally of the United States, and we look forward to this opportunity to advance our global agenda with Korea's new leadership.

We will, of course, also discuss the Six-Party talks, and I thought I might take a second to give you my assessment of where that process stands. North Korea is disabling its Yongbyon nuclear facility and we are in the second phase of our implementation agreement to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. The outcome we and our partners require is a full account from North Korea of all its nuclear programs, including any uranium and nuclear proliferation activities.

All six parties have obligations as well, which we've agreed to undertake in parallel with North Korea's submission of a declaration, a declaration that we will verify rigorously. The steps that we are taking are measured ones, and we will continue to judge North Korea's actions and take other steps as warranted.

I want to emphasize that we are at the beginning of a very complex process, not the end -- a process that must lead to the actual removal, for the first time in history, of nuclear material from North Korea and a verifiable end to its nuclear programs. Have we made progress through the Six-Party framework? Yes. Is there still reason for caution and skepticism? Yes. Yet, the Six-Party framework has demonstrated great value. Through it, we have found common ground with China, Japan, Russia and South Korea on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and fighting proliferation. The framework is invaluable when North Korea conducted a nuclear test, allowing us to quickly respond at the United Nations. This is much preferable to the United States dealing with these issues alone. Further progress on denuclearization will also enable us to step up our cooperation on other goals: a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula; normalization of relations; a new mechanism to cooperate on peace and security in Northeast Asia; and, of course, an opportunity to improve the lives of the North Korean people. In short, the six-party framework is a framework to elicit cooperation. It is also a framework to deal with noncooperation.

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QUESTION: Just to follow up on North Korea and on the -- meeting their obligations and the declaration. This would also include reference to proliferation activities and would mention Syria on North Korea, if that's the case?

SECRETARY RICE: As I've said, there has to be an accounting for all the nuclear programs. All the nuclear programs include not just the uranium program, the plutonium program, but also nuclear proliferation activities. And we've made that very clear, not just to the North Koreans but to other parties in the six-party talks. What the six-party framework gives you is a means by which the United States is not left alone to deal with future pledges that the North Koreans might make or representations that the North Koreans might make about ongoing proliferation activities.

Again, China, Russia, Japan, South Korea -- whenever the North undertakes these obligations, they're undertaking them in the context within the framework of the six-party talks. And I think that's very important, because I can't think of another way that one is going to get a handle on North Korean proliferation activities or deal with the pledges that they make.

Yes.

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