Remarks in Beijing, China

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Hi, how are you?

QUESTION: Who are you hoping to meet today in Beijing?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I think I have a meeting with Mr. Wu Dawei tonight for dinner. We’re going to talk about my discussions in Berlin and I will ask him about his thoughts on when they can schedule the next round of the Six Party Talks, because we would like to do that as soon as that’s convenient for the Chinese government.

QUESTION: [when do you believe the Six Party Talks will start]?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I don’t know. That will be up to the Chinese hosts; so I’ll ask Mr. Wu Dawei. We would like them very soon, but it would be up to him. We will have a discussion about that, and of course he has to talk to the other participants of the Six Party Talks as well. It doesn’t just depend on us.

QUESTION: Will you be meeting with anyone else or just Wu Dawei?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I think I’ll be meeting with Assistant Foreign Minister He Yafei. I know you always ask me if I’m meeting with the DPRK, but I already met them in Berlin.

QUESTION: [meet with the DPRK here]?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: No, I have no plans to meet Mr. Kim Gye-gwan again; we had enough meetings in Berlin.

QUESTION: What’s your schedule tomorrow?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I’m going to go home.

QUESTION: Are you‘re leaving in the morning?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I’ll go home tomorrow, yes.

QUESTION: What do you expect to achieve here?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: We’d like to talk to the Chinese Government about scheduling the next round of the Six Party Talks, so that would be the achievement – to have a discussion and an understanding on when we can start the talks.

QUESTION: Is there any update on financial talks and when and where?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: No update but that’s something that I’ll be discussing with our Treasury people when I get back to the States tomorrow.

QUESTION: Did you make any progress in Berlin with North Korea?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I’ve said several times I thought these were very useful discussions, and I’m going to talk to the Chinese Government about them today.

QUESTION: Will you be discussing the satellite issues?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: As you know, the position of my government is pretty well known on that. My focus in talking to Mr. Wu Dawei is on the Six Party Talks.

OK, thank you very much.