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

U.S. Department of State

Remarks Upon Arrival in Japan

Christopher R. Hill, Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
Press Stakeout at Narita Airport
Tokyo, Japan
December 2, 2008

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Hi. It's good to be back. I'll be seeing Mr. Saiki tonight, and then we'll have a trilateral tomorrow. And then I think I'll leave tomorrow afternoon and go on to Singapore.

QUESTION: So what will you propose for the discussion with Japan and South Korea?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, I think that all the discussions have to do with the upcoming Six-Party head of delegation meeting, which takes place in Beijing next week. So we want to first have a meeting of the ROK and Japan and the U.S. to try to prepare and synchronize our positions for the upcoming meeting. So on the agenda, I think the main issue will be the verification protocol; we need to get that finalized. We also need to discuss finalizing the fuel delivery shipments - the heavy fuel oil. And finally we need to finalize the disablement, so that we can get on with the actual verification.

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