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 8, 2008

1:16 p.m. EDT

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QUESTION: On Burma, could you talk about any diplomacy that the Secretary has been engaged in? Has she been making any calls to her counterpart?

MR. MCCORMACK: She did speak with the Chinese Foreign Minister this morning, to talk to him primarily about Burma. They covered a couple of other topics as well, but it was primarily about Burma. And the basic message is -- in private, was what you heard from her in public just yesterday, talking about the importance of any state with influence over the Burmese regime to use that influence to get a decision from the Burmese Government to allow in international aid workers and, therefore, really open up the spigot of international assistance to help with what is, quite clearly, a humanitarian disaster.

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QUESTION: Can I follow up on that?

MR. MCCORMACK: Sure.

QUESTION: The discussion the Secretary had with the Foreign Minister -- correct?

MR. MCCORMACK: Correct.

QUESTION: Chinese Foreign Minister, she called him, presumably?

MR. MCCORMACK: She did. Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: And do you know whether the Chinese have already made any sort of appeals to the regime in Burma and what do they plan --

MR. MCCORMACK: I can't tell you -- I can't tell you specifically.

QUESTION: What kind of response did you get?

MR. MCCORMACK: I can't tell you specifically. I'm sure that they have and I'd be very surprised if they didn't because we have been engaged with them at lower levels on this issue, as have others. And it's not just the Chinese. We're talking, for example, to the Thai Government. And we're, you know -- and I gave a list just the other day of all the other governments that we're speaking with. Our ambassadors in the region are engaging with their governments to see what sort of leverage they might have with the Burmese regime. So it's a -- you know, a full-court diplomatic press and -- to try to get a different response than we've had, thus far, out of the Burmese regime.

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QUESTION: Does the fact that -- do you know if that's affected other people as well? I mean, I don't think there are many embassies, if any, except for the Chinese.

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah. I think it has. I know that in terms of --

QUESTION: So --

MR. MCCORMACK: -- prior to this humanitarian disaster, that's been an issue because you have the government located up in the new capital city that they've designated and, essentially, all the other diplomatic representation is still down in Rangoon. So it has made interaction with the government more difficult.

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QUESTION: On North Korea, can you comment on the Wall Street Journal report that North Korea's going to hand over this week to the U.S. boxes of documents, including Yongbyon facility's operation history?

And also, do you have any updates on the U.S. team that's in North Korea to discuss food aid to North Korea?

MR. MCCORMACK: Food aid -- the food aid team has left. They are --

QUESTION: Any updates --

MR. MCCORMACK: Their discussions -- they were inconclusive, I guess you could say. They went there to take a look at whether or not conditions had changed sufficiently so that we could, in good conscience, in good faith, provide food aid and know that it was going to get to people who need it. So at this point, those discussions are inconclusive. I don't know that they've had a chance to brief back people here in Washington, so I can't give you a more full description. But essentially, they go out there and look at, is there a need and can we effectively get food aid to people who need it. That's been an issue not only for us, but others in the international humanitarian assistance community.

In terms of Sung Kim, I expect that he's probably going to be coming back over -- into South Korea tomorrow. And I expect that he is going to bring with him -- I know that he is going to bring with him a significant number of documents related to North Korea's plutonium program. And we'll have an opportunity over the coming days -- days and weeks to assess the significance of these documents. It is a large number. I can't provide you an exact number right now. We have to take a -- you know, really go through it very carefully. And with respect to these -- you know, with respect to the documents and how they may play in the declaration process, you know, our top three priorities are going to be verification, verification, verification.

So this is part of a process that is unfolding. We will see, perhaps, North Korea providing a declaration to China, who is the chair of the six-party talks, and these documents will play a role in that process. But again, it is going to be a verification process that plays out over a period of time.

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QUESTION: Yeah, and just to follow up on that, in terms of the declaration itself, I mean, not all of the parties are nuclear states with the kind of nuclear expertise that the United States has or Russia has, for instance. So how do you -- have you decided, like, on a mechanism for weighing the declaration? Because all five parties have to be happy with it, but not all five parties are equally, kind of --

MR. MCCORMACK: Right. Well, these are all highly developed economies with a great deal of technical expertise on issues related to nuclear technology, certainly with South Korea and in Japan, that's in civilian uses. So I think everybody brings something to the table and some level of expertise that they can apply in making their own judgments about this. But certainly, there's going to be a lot of discussion among the members of the six-party talks about the declaration once it's received. I have to emphasize, we haven't received, or the Chinese have not yet received, that declaration.

QUESTION: Thank you.

(The briefing was concluded at 1:45 p.m.)