U.S. Relations With the People's Republic of China (2009)

U.S. Department of State

Ian Kelly
Spokesman

Daily Press Briefing

Washington, DC
October 6, 2009

1:21 p.m. EDT

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: A question for -- on North Korea.

MR. KELLY: Yeah.

QUESTION: I know you put out a statement last night, but I want to know if you could be more specific about whether you find it encouraging that the North Koreans would suggest returning to the Six-Party Talks?

MR. KELLY: Yeah.

QUESTION: And also whether this would potentially indicate moving closer to a decision on --

MR. KELLY: Yeah.

QUESTION: -- the bilateral talk?

MR. KELLY: Well, you know what our goal is, and all of our efforts are really put behind that goal of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. We have had tremendous efforts in coordinating with our partners. We had Ambassador Bosworth and Ambassador Kim going out there a few weeks ago for talks with all of our partners. More recently, we had Deputy Secretary Steinberg out in the region where he also talked with several of our partners. And our policy is very clear, that we would support a bilateral dialogue that is within the context of the Six-Party Talks -- in other words in close coordination, done in close consultation with our partners, as long as those talks led to a resumption of the Six-Party Talks.

Now, regarding the statements that we saw yesterday, those are -- for the moment, what we know is what we've seen in the press. The Chinese officials who are in Pyongyang have only just -- literally, just returned to Beijing. And our Embassy in Beijing is going to seek a meeting with them, and we look forward to learning more details of what was discussed in Pyongyang regarding the Six-Party Talks. But until then, we're going to refrain from adding some kind of qualifier to how to characterize these talks.

QUESTION: And the President is encouraging our -- otherwise?

MR. KELLY: Well, again, we need to find out more details. And clearly, if we're on a path leading to our goal, of course that's encouraging, but we're going to -- I'm not going to characterize it until we talk to our Chinese partners.

QUESTION: Thank you.

MR. KELLY: Okay.

(The briefing was concluded at 1:28 p.m.)