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

U.S. Department of State

Interview With Mike Schneider of Bloomberg News

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Waldorf-Astoria
New York, New York
September 29, 2008

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: We touched upon North Korea briefly a little earlier in the program. What happened with North Korea? Why do we suddenly find them, you know, asking the UN observers to leave, breaking the seals, making moves to restart their enrichment programs? What happened?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, we've had these ups and downs before in the six-party talks, and we're going through one of those. I can't tell you whether or not the North Koreans are trying in their own way to create negotiating conditions, but we're saying to them and we're saying through - and the Chinese are saying and the South Koreans are saying, this is not the way to deal in the Six Parties.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: Well, their contention was we didn't take them off the terrorist list quickly enough or free up the funds that they wanted.

SECRETARY RICE: Well, they were supposed to submit an accurate declaration. There are big questions about the declaration that they submitted. And so we need - verification means to be sure that it's accurate and that we can get at remaining questions. But we will see what happens.

The good news is the United States is not in this alone. The Chinese, the South Koreans, the Japanese, the Russians all have points of leverage, and we will all use them to bring about a resolution here.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]