U.S. and Hong Kong (2004)

State Department Noon Briefing, May 3

State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher briefed the press at the noon briefing May 3.

Following is the transcript of the State Department briefing:

(begin transcript)

U.S. Department of State
Daily Press Briefing
Monday, May 3, 2004
12:55 p.m. EDT

BRIEFER: Richard Boucher, Spokesman

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: Okay, North Korea. Do you have anything on the meeting between the Chinese North Korea envoy with Deputy Secretary Armitage?

MR. BOUCHER: Yes. Want me to tell you about it? (Laughter.)

QUESTION: Sure.

MR. BOUCHER: Okay. The Chinese Special Envoy for North Korea Ning Fukui met with the Deputy Secretary for 30 minutes this morning. They discussed the progress of the six-party talks and the upcoming working group meeting beginning in Beijing on May 12th.

Ambassador Ning will have further consultations with Special Envoy for North Korea Joseph DiTrani and she'll pay a call on East Asia and Pacific Assistant Secretary James Kelly this afternoon.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: A couple questions on Taiwan. Some names have surfaced as the candidates for the Taiwanese representative at TECRO here. Is the State Department reviewing candidate lists and also the May 20th speech of Taiwanese President?

MR. BOUCHER: I'm not going to get into any other -- anybody's nominations for personnel of their representative office, so I can't get into that.

As far as the May 20th speech, I'll look and see if there's anything we have to say about it.

QUESTION: Also, are you aware maybe the --

MR. BOUCHER: I think we actually have addressed the speech before, right? I'd look back and see that first.

QUESTION: So you'll check on that?

MR. BOUCHER: I'll check on that, but I think we've already addressed it.

QUESTION: And are you aware the Vice President Annette Lu from Taiwan is going to stop by America and then go to Central America?

MR. BOUCHER: I don't have anything on that. I'll check.

Ma'am.

QUESTION: Do you have anything on Hong Kong's Labor Day protest? Labor Day is May 1st.

MR. BOUCHER: No, I don't have anything today. I'll see if there's anything we want to say. Thanks.

In the back.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

(The briefing was concluded at 1:42 p.m.)

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