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

U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing

Tom Casey, Deputy Spokesman
Washington, DC
February 29, 2008

12:54 p.m. EST

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QUESTION: Do you have Chris Hill's schedule for this weekend?

MR. CASEY: Well, you know, his secretary didn't give me the exact one. Let's see, 3:15, lunch at the pool -- no, sorry, I wouldn't want to say that. Let me tell you what I've been able to get about Chris' schedule here. First of all -- let's see, let me see if I've got -- I know I have it here somewhere and we are searching, searching, searching -- does anyone have any good kind of search music, something that'll -- kind of ticking clock or something -- okay, here's what I've got.

So Assistant Secretary Hill was in Beijing -- or sorry, in Bangkok today. He met with the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, and the ASEAN Secretary General, also gave a speech at one of the local universities there. He'll be traveling from Bangkok directly back to Beijing on Saturday, March the 1st, and he'll have further discussions there with Chinese officials on how to move the six-party process forward. I don't have details at this point of who he's specifically meeting with, but of course, he's met generally with Wu Dawei and others in his staff involved directly in these discussions.

The plan then, at this point, is that he'll have those consultations on Saturday and on Sunday, will then travel on to Hanoi as previously scheduled, do his meetings there, leave Hanoi late on March the 3rd and be back here on March the 4th. And to answer your next question, he does not, as yet, have any detailed schedule of appointments and that would include any appointments with Kim Gye Gwan or other North Korean officials.

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(The briefing was concluded at 1:26 p.m.)