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

The White House

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
December 14, 2008

Roundtable Interview of the President with Travel Pool

Aboard Air Force One
En Route Afghanistan

11:39 P.M. (Local)

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Q: If there is anything when you look at this last month or so you have left that you wish you could accomplish, in the foreign policy arena or anything you want to say, if you had a single thing that you want to accomplish, what would it be?

THE PRESIDENT: Last month? Well, it's to solidify the frameworks that will enable problems to be solved.

Take, for example, the North Korean issue. It is much easier to solve a problem diplomatically when there is more than one voice speaking to the leader of North Korea. And a success of this administration is to put a framework in place that has China, the United States, and South Korea and Russia and Japan all at the table, all saying the same thing. In this case, the message is, we need to have a verifiable process in place to determine whether or not you're fulfilling your obligations.

Secondly, in the old process it used to be, we will give you what you ask for and hope that you respond. Now it is, here's what you must do if you want our help. We've reversed the process. And it's not just the United States speaking. So right now what you're watching is that the leader of North Korea is trying to test the process. First he said something Japan, and now he's saying something about so-and-so. And so the objective is to keep our partners firm on the understanding that the six-party process is the best way to solve the North Korean issue.

So he'll test -- and this isn't the first time he's tested. He signed an agreement in September of 2005. Everybody said, great, looks like we're on our way to having the problem solved. And then he tested and changed his mind and did this, that, and the other. And the key is to be firm and patient with a structure that will enable the next President or the next President after that to be able to solve the problem diplomatically.

So there's one area right there that we're working on. Obviously the Security Council resolution on dealing with the Annapolis process. We got the SOFA -- SFA-SOFA done on Iraq.

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END

12:06 A.M. (Local)