U.S. and Taiwan (2009)

U.S. Department of State

Robert Wood
Acting Department Spokesman

Daily Press Briefing

April 29, 2009

11:17 a.m. EDT

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MR. WOOD: Nothing? Okay. Well, I just want to start off with a statement here on Taiwan's participation in the World Health Assembly.

The United States welcomes the announcement that the World Health Organization has invited Taiwan to attend this year's World Health Assembly, the supreme governing body of the World Health Organization, as an observer under the name Chinese Taipei. We have long supported Taiwan's meaningful participation in the WHO, including observer status at the WHA. We look forward to the participation of Taiwan at the WHA, and the benefits Taiwan's public health expertise will bring to the international community.

And with that, I'm ready to take your questions.

QUESTION: On that?

MR. WOOD: On this issue?

QUESTION: Yes.

MR. WOOD: Please.

QUESTION: Sir, Taiwan had tried to participate in the World Health Assembly in the World Health Organization for past 12 years, but it failed. But this year, WHO formally invited Taiwan. Can you elaborate the reason, the difference why this year's WHO made its new decision?

MR. WOOD: I think you'd have to address that issue to the WHO. But obviously, we welcome this step, as I mentioned. And I think the WHO can best address that question.

QUESTION: Nearby? Well, not nearby. Not either nearby Geneva not Taiwan, really, but North Korea.

MR. WOOD: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: The latest bombast coming out of Pyongyang suggests that they are going to start launching more missiles, conducting more nuclear tests, and starting to enrich -- and start enriching uranium. What do you -- unless the Security Council apologizes and rescinds these --

MR. WOOD: I don't think you'll see an apology from the Security Council.

Let me just say very clearly that these threats only further isolate the North. And as I mentioned I think yesterday or the day before, the North needs to come back to the table. And we are working with our partners to try to convince the North to do that.

The North's policies have done nothing, as I said, but isolate the country and, unfortunately, its people. And we encourage those who have influence with the regime and Pyongyang to use that influence to convince the North to live up to its obligations, focusing specifically on the 2005 joint statement in which it agreed to a denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

So the UN Security Council's statement that was passed unanimously made very clear what the North needs to do. And we, again, call on the North Koreans to come back to the table and adhere to the commitments that it made.

So I have nothing beyond that, Matt. I mean, we've heard these types of threats before, so --

Yes, Charlie.

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(The briefing was concluded at 11:36 a.m.)