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

U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing

Sean McCormack, Spokesman
Washington, DC
May 6, 2008

12:40 p.m. EDT

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QUESTION: Do you happen to have any more details about Sung Kim's trip to Pyongyang?

MR. MCCORMACK: No, not much more. He is going to be leaving -- either is going to be or has left already to travel to Pyongyang. I expect he'll have some meetings there on Thursday and he will probably be back in the United States over the weekend or Monday. But I expect just one day of meetings. He'll be traveling over land both going in and coming out.

QUESTION: Sean?

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah.

QUESTION: Do you expect that this is the trip where he'll be able to take documents out of the country to come back and start verifying --

MR. MCCORMACK: You know, this -- it's part of --

QUESTION: Is this the --

MR. MCCORMACK: It's part of the ongoing dialogue with respect to North Korea's declaration. We'll see what it is that North Korea decides to do regarding their declaration. They have yet to hand over the declaration to the Chinese Government, which is the chair of the six-party process. That will be the formal way any declaration is handed over. And we'll see what the result of Sung Kim's discussions with the North Korean Government are on their declaration.

QUESTION: But just in terms of, kind of, mechanics of how this is going to go, are they supposed to hand over the declaration first to the Chinese and then you start the process of getting the documents to verify it? Or is it possible that --

MR. MCCORMACK: You know, the exact form of all of this isn't particularly important, in terms of, you know, what step, in terms of any supporting information or any other information that North Korea wants to provide as part of their declaration. How exactly they do that is not the most important issue. The most important issue is the substance of a declaration, when and if we do get that. I mean, the other members of the six-party talks will take a look at it, evaluate it, analyze it, and judge it and, based on that judgment, see whether or not the process can move forward.

Yeah.

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(The briefing was concluded at 1:00 p.m.)