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
June 27, 2008

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QUESTION: And talks are scheduled in Beijing on Monday for six-party envoys-meeting?

MR. CASEY: Well, the Chinese are still making a determination as to exactly when the meeting will take place. I understand there's just some scheduling issues they're working through. I would think you could certainly count on it in the very near future, and we would hope as soon as Monday.

QUESTION: Tom.

MR. CASEY: Yeah. Go ahead, Goyal, or, sorry, Kirit.

QUESTION: Just wanted to see if you had anything more you can say than you did at the gaggle about the contents of the declaration at this point?

MR. CASEY: No. I really don't think I have much to add beyond what we said this morning. Again, the Chinese have distributed the declaration to the six parties. Certainly, we and others will be looking at it very carefully. And of course, the receipt of the declaration is just the very first step and beginning of the process of verifying the information and of answering outstanding questions that are there. So I think people should, again, look at this as a beginning, rather than an ending.

Yeah, David.

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QUESTION: As far as the nuclear program is concerned, in the past, they broke their pledges and trust. And how can you -- and -- trust them now? And I'm sure, beyond six-party talks, many other neighbors in the regions -- they must be worried about -- in the future and -- because they've been doing like this (inaudible).

MR. CASEY: Well, first of all, the neighbors are concerned about North Korea's nuclear program -- neighbors like China, Russia, South Korea and Japan -- which is why we have worked with them in the six-party talks to address not just U.S. concerns, but their concerns about North Korea's nuclear program.

And look, this isn't a matter of trust. Trust is something you build as a result of the confidence that comes from people successfully adhering to their agreements and meeting their obligations. This is a matter of testing, as the Secretary has said, North Korea's willingness to move forward, to honor its agreements, and to live up to the commitments it made back in September of '05, which was to fully and completely dismantle their nuclear programs and denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. And the importance of this process and the way we've set it up is so that it is action for action and that steps, positive steps taken by the North Koreans will be met by positive steps by us.

But it's a incremental process. It's one where no one is taking anything for granted and it's one where we are going to look very hard and carefully, as the Secretary said, in verifying the information that we've got to assure ourselves that we know what we need to know about North Korea's nuclear program and assure ourselves before we take any additional reciprocal actions that what has been pledged has actually been carried out.

QUESTION: Just a quick follow-up?

MR. CASEY: Okay.

QUESTION: When you already know -- or do you know now that as far as where they got their nuclear program, whether it's from China, from A.Q. Khan network?

MR. CASEY: Well, look. All questions -- these are all the kinds of things that need to be done through the verification process. I think we certainly, again, as the Secretary said, have a far better idea now about the range and the scope of North Korea's nuclear programs, not only about their plutonium production and capabilities, but also about their other activities.

But these are things where there are still open questions and where, through the verification process and as we move forward with implementation of the original September '05 agreement, we will need to and expect to be able to get answers.

Kirit.

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QUESTION: Can you comment on some of the other concerns, like especially for Japan with regards to the abductee issue or anything like that, and how that might be addressed in the future?

MR. CASEY: I thought the President spoke pretty clearly on this yesterday. Look, I don't think it's for us to tell Japan what is a satisfactory solution to this. It never has been. Our role in this has been to support the Japanese efforts to respond to this concern and to have it adequately addressed by the North Korean Government. But ultimately, it's not for us to say. It's for the Japanese to say what is required to do that. We will be supportive of their efforts to do so. We have been in the past. We will continue to be in the future. And it is an important component of the overall six-party process.

But, you know, we have bilateral issues with North Korea, the Japanese have bilateral issues with North Korea, the South Koreans, Russians and Chinese do, too. The purpose of getting us all together in the six-party talks is to allow each of us to work on those bilateral issues in the broader context of the six-party talks, because the combined leverage and weight of all of us working together on this ought to mean that each of us can achieve both our specific bilateral concerns, as well as dealing with the broader overall common interest of ending North Korea's nuclear program.

Yes, sir.

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(The briefing was concluded at 1:04 p.m.)