Remarks Outside of the Korea Society 50th Anniversary Celebration

QUESTION: We’re just going to ask about Yongbon and the importance of getting it shut down. What do you see as –

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I don’t want to get into specific things that we’re trying to do, but clearly they’ve got to ban all their nuclear programs, per the agreement. So, we want to get a good start on that. And without going further to describe what a good start would be, we need some things to happen on the ground. I’ll be able to talk about it much more extensively next week.

QUESTION: Is there any possibility that your government asked the BDA to unfreeze their–

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Again, I’m not going to discuss that. We’ve always wanted to settle BDA, and we’ve said it had to be via a process of working with the DPRK. We’ve been able to do that lately, with some good discussions in December and January. I know Treasury, Mr. Glaser, returned back to Washington, and so I’m sure they’ll be having some discussions at the Treasury Department about where to go from here.

QUESTION: How many days are you expecting in these issues to negotiate?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I don’t know. I don’t know. You’ll have to ask the Chinese, but yes, the shorter, the better.

QUESTION: Is there any possibility that the BDA talks will be held at the same time again?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I don’t believe so, because I think we just had the BDA talks last week.

Okay?

QUESTION: Are you still in contact with North Korea’s negotiators?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Indirectly through the New York channel, yes.

QUESTION: Ever since the last meeting in Berlin?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Yes. Through the New York channel.

QUESTION: There is some criticism that if North Korea just freezes the Yongbon facility, this is just a copy of the Geneva agreement, which was made in 1994.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, I’m not talking about specifically what were looking to do, except to say that our objective is to complete the September statement. So any actions we take will only be partial completion of the September statement. So I think you have to judge us by whether we complete the whole statement. But we won’t do it in one session.

QUESTION: Do you have any plan to meet –

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I’ve really got to go. I’ve got to go.