U.S. and Hong Kong (2003)

State Department Daily Briefing Transcript

State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher conducted the department's daily press briefing April 17. Following is the transcript:

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Daily Press Briefing
Richard Boucher, Spokesman
Washington, DC
April 17, 2003

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QUESTION: Can you explain the rationale behind the revision of the travel warnings as they relate to SARS, Hong Kong and China?

MR. BOUCHER: I think they said themselves that they were intended to clarify some of the actual practices of the governments involved. The one on China says it's being revised to inform U.S. citizens of updated requirements of the Government of China.

And the Hong Kong one, the Hong Kong one was to recommend that U.S. citizens consider deferring nonessential travel to Hong Kong because of the --

QUESTION: Well, wasn't that already the position? I'm just a little confused because it refers to CDC warnings, but other countries not mentioned by the CDC and regions are mentioned in these new travel warnings. So that's my confusion.

MR. BOUCHER: I'm not quite sure. The CDC certainly mentions China and Hong Kong. Which ones are you talking about that aren't mentioned?

QUESTION: I was talking about Singapore and Hanoi.

MR. BOUCHER: All right. Well, those are -- each of our travel advisories, travel warnings, describes exactly why it's being issued and why it's being updated and how it's being updated. So if you look in the first couple lines, you should find out what's new about it. And if you don't, then I'll go back to the drafters and tell them they didn't fulfill their mission. But I think it probably says so.

Betsy. Oh, sorry. Mr. Lambros.

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QUESTION: Yeah, I got a list here though. The one on Russia failed; the one on Zimbabwe failed; the one on Sudan failed. There was a resolution that condemned Israel. And I guess China escaped, but that was probably because of you, and you wanted them to escape. So, in general, given your concerns about --

MR. BOUCHER: We talked last Friday about our decision not to propose a resolution on China.

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QUESTION: North Korea, is Assistant Secretary Kelly going to meet top Korean and Japan officials here tomorrow? What does he have to achieve in that meeting, and is he likely to go visit those two countries after the Beijing talks?

MR. BOUCHER: Okay. Assistant Secretary Kelly will hold consultations tomorrow with visiting officials from Seoul and Tokyo. He will be talking there about his upcoming talks in Beijing that we expect in the near future, possibly as early as next week, with the North Koreans and the Chinese together, as part of our ongoing and very close consultations with our South Korean and Japanese allies.

As far as where he might travel when he goes to the Beijing meeting, I don't have anything specific on that at this point.

QUESTION: Where is he now?

MR. BOUCHER: Upstairs.

QUESTION: And he's going to -- his meeting's going to take place tomorrow?

MR. BOUCHER: Here.

QUESTION: Oh, here. Okay.

MR. BOUCHER: They are visiting here.

QUESTION: Still no date on the North Koreans?

MR. BOUCHER: Still no date on the talks with the North. We hope the meeting will take place in the near future, perhaps, as early as next week. That's as close as I can come to the date.

QUESTION: Will it before the security amendment?

MR. BOUCHER: We are taking bets on that. I'll give you the odds later.

Sir.

QUESTION: The Secretary characterized that the talk next week as just a beginning of that long, intense discussion with North Koreans. Are there any assurance from North Koreans that they may have the second meeting, or any successive meeting they have, and if any assurances? What about the Japanese or South Korean involvement?

MR. BOUCHER: I don't think I can give any statements or assurances on the part of the North Koreans at this point. But, as the Secretary made clear in his interviews in recent days, it should be seen as an opportunity for North Korea as well to come and put forward its concerns and its issues, and to look for the international community to deal with those issues, just as we looked to North Korea to deal with the issues that we are raising, particularly the need for a verifiable and irreversible end to its nuclear weapons programs.

All along, we've been working very closely with the Japanese and the South Koreans, and well as with the Chinese and Russians. As you know, the fact of these talks that have just been agreed to, really, the ideas came from the Secretary's visit to Japan and South Korea in late February -- Japan, South Korea and China. And we told you during the trip, even though some people wrote stories that were the opposite, but we mentioned during the trip that we had talked about some ideas with Japan and we carried those ideas, talked about them with China. And since then, we've been working on a multilateral approach to talks. It has come to fruition in this incipient dialogue that will take place in China with the participation of the Chinese, as well as the United States and North Korea.

We are doing that in full consultations with Japan and South Korea. We certainly think Japan, South Korea and others, including Russia, have a contribution to make. In the meantime, we'll be suggesting their inclusion, but also keeping in very, very close touch with them before, during and after the discussions.

QUESTION: There was one other question today -- the hard bargaining won't begin until the Japanese and the South Koreans are involved directly in the process.

MR. BOUCHER: I suppose that's a prediction of some kind. I would find it very hard at this point to predict how this will proceed. Let's start with the initial meetings. I'm sure we're going to be raising issues and North Korea will be raising issues, China will be raising its concerns, its thoughts. China is a participant in the talks and has always supported the denuclearization of the peninsula. So the various parties that were there will raise different issues, and we'll see how it proceeds after it's started.

QUESTION: Richard --

QUESTION: On Korea, have we developed any thoughts of how North Korea might verifiably disarm? Any proposals that might be discussed with them?

MR. BOUCHER: I don't have any proposals to discuss at this point, no.

QUESTION: Is it fair to say, Richard, that the format, the three-way format, was actually agreed upon either during or very shortly after the Secretary returned from the region, and that you guys had been holding off on really saying anything about it until you got -- until you saw the expression of interest from -- over this past weekend, I believe it was, from the North Koreans?

MR. BOUCHER: I don't think it would be fair to put it that way. The way I would put it is that during the Secretary's visit in late February he talked to the Japanese, the South Koreans and the Chinese about some ideas on how we could get a multilateral discussion going, how we could make sure that the United States and North Korea had a chance to put their issues on the table, but also the broader concerns of the international community were represented there as well. And so we looked to start in a multilateral setting, as he said, and he had some ideas that he discussed during that trip.

Since then, these ideas have evolved. They have been discussed with the Chinese. They've been discussed with the Japanese, the South Koreans, in the meetings that Assistant Secretary Kelly has had, in the meetings the Secretary has had, in the meetings the Secretary had with the Chinese in New York subsequently, subsequent to his trip. They've also been pursued by our ambassadors in these places as they have developed into this more concrete aspect of a forum.

At this point, it looks like that will happen, but we'll see when it happens.

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