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

U.S. Department of State

Interview With Zain Verjee of CNN

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Washington, DC
December 17, 2008

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QUESTION: They won't put it in writing?

SECRETARY RICE: And -- no, the verification protocol is in writing. The assurances that need to close those loopholes and ambiguities, that's what we are going to insist and continue to insist that the North Koreans write down. But we have the complete support and complete agreement among the other powers: Russia, China, Japan, South Korea.

So again, they haven't made any plutonium since this agreement has been made. They've been disabling. Yes, we took them off the terrorist list. They are still the most sanctioned country, by far, in the world, and they get really no benefit from being off the terrorist list.

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QUESTION: You pushed that here at the State Department.

SECRETARY RICE: Everyone served the President and served honorably and put forward what they thought was the best course for the country. Ultimately, the President decided. We're in a -- we were in a different period after 2005 when I came to State than we were in 2001, 2002 and 2003. In many ways, we were harvesting here during my time as Secretary decisions that were taken in earlier times.

Yes, some people wanted us to engage North Korea bilaterally rather than in the -- with the strength that the Six-Party Talks give us, with China with tremendous leverage, South Korea with tremendous leverage. Yes, we could have engaged them bilaterally. I don't think it would have been very effective.

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