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
May 29, 2008

12:31 p.m. EDT

MR. CASEY: Okay. Well, good afternoon, everybody. Pleasure to be here with you. I don't have anything to start you out with, so?

QUESTION: (Inaudible) quotes Assistant Secretary Hill as saying on arrival in Moscow that he expects North Korea to produce its declaration soon. He doesn't usually say things like that, like "soon." And there's many a slip between (inaudible). Do you know whether he said "soon"? And is that the Department's expectation?

MR. CASEY: Well, the Department's expectation is what Chris Hill said prior to departure from Beijing, which is that we would certainly like to see the declaration be produced as soon as possible. But Chris was unwilling at that point, after concluding his meetings with the North Koreans, to try and put a timeline on it. And unless something has happened in the last three or four hours, that's where we are. So no, I don't believe that that's actually an accurate quote of his.

Again, we'd like to see the declaration be produced as soon as possible, but I don't have an expectation. And as far as I know, Chris doesn't have an expectation that we can share in terms of when that might actually occur.

QUESTION: And just so we're clear, is it that you think it's implausible that he said that or you've actually been unable to track that down?

MR. CASEY: I've not had a chance to check -- to talk to him specifically. But again, I would point you to the now-released transcript of his remarks immediately prior to departure this morning, which very explicitly say that he does not have a timetable and cannot offer a timetable for when that declaration would occur. And I am simply making the logical leap that in his commercial plane flight between Beijing and Moscow, the North Koreans did not provide him with additional information to change his mind on that.

QUESTION: Can you talk a moment about that earlier exchange? It's a little unclear, but I thought I understood him to say that he thinks there could be two meetings before the declaration, right?

MR. CASEY: Well --

QUESTION: A technical level and then one at (inaudible)?

MR. CASEY: Well, my understanding is there is a couple of things that we're anticipating or that he is anticipating as a result of his discussions in Beijing. One would be a technical-level discussion that would be a bilateral one between North Korean experts and U.S. experts that would take place sometime in -- I think he was saying the early part of June -- to be able to look at a variety of issues and details that relate to both the declaration and the follow-on steps afterwards.

The second is he had said that he -- that based on his conversations with the Chinese, that the Chinese were looking for a way to also hold a heads of delegation meeting somewhere, again, in the next -- you know, next two or three weeks.

QUESTION: But prior to the turning over of -- the possible turning over of a declaration? Because that's what he seems to say.

MR. CASEY: Yeah, and that's -- my understanding was that yes, he was saying that there would be a heads of delegation meeting, and that the heads of delegation meeting was not required to be after the declaration was, and in fact, he was anticipating it happening before then.

QUESTION: Would that heads of delegation -- I mean, he doesn't address this, but would the heads of delegation meeting be for the North Koreans to hand over the declaration?

MR. CASEY: You know, again, I don't have a timetable for when they'll do it. I don't get the impression that that's the specific purpose of it.

QUESTION: Okay.

MR. CASEY: But again, I think -- you know, any time the North Koreans would like to hand over a declaration that meets our requirements, we would be delighted to see it go to the Chinese and be shared with everyone else.

QUESTION: Well, I mean, he just made a round of seeing everybody individually. What's the value, purpose of having everybody in one room before the North Koreans hand it over?

MR. CASEY: Well, I mean, first of all, his -- I guess Moscow is his last stop in this round of consultations. And, you know, again, I think it's really up to the parties to determine at which point it makes sense to continue bilateral consultations versus at which point it makes sense to get all the parties together. I haven't talked with Chris in the level of detail where I've said, "So, gee, why do the Chinese and you think that a heads of delegation meeting right now would be good this week as opposed to last week?"

But, you know, it's part of an ongoing process. They haven't actually met for some time now. There have been discussions about having a heads of delegation meeting for the last couple of months. And, you know, I think it would be a good opportunity to take stock of where they are, but I wouldn't try and signal to you that we're expecting it to be a harbinger of any particular action.

QUESTION: Does it, in any way, indicate that these round of -- this round of individual consultations hasn't produced a desired result?

MR. CASEY: Well, look, the desired result is a declaration. And we will have the desired result when the declaration is turned in. Until that point, you know, I don't think I'm in a position, and I don't even think Chris would want to be in a position, of trying to say: Are we 82.5 percent there or 83.5 percent there today versus yesterday? The bottom line is we do feel that we're making progress. But ultimately, the real proof of that will be getting a declaration that meets our conditions and those of the other six parties.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

(The briefing was concluded at 12:59 p.m.)