Comments to Reporters Upon Leaving Okura Hotel

QUESTION: Good morning. Do you have any final remarks?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: We’re off to Beijing today. We have a lot of work ahead of us, and I think the big question is whether the North Koreans are really ready to make some progress. We did have some good signs in Berlin, but I think we also know that there's going to be some rather hard bargaining. So we'll see how we do. It's been very, very helpful, though, to come here to Tokyo and have the opportunity to spend some very useful meetings with Japanese allies and to talk about what's important to the Japanese Government as we go forward in this process. And I think the closer we can stand together, the better chance we have of success.

QUESTION: Do you think there is any possibility that the DPRK just insists on the financial sanctions issue and isn't willing to talk, just like last time?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, I don't know. We'll have to see. I'm not going to make predictions. I'll just go there and -- You know, we’ve worked very hard, and we do have a lot of good ideas. So we’ll see how we do.

QUESTION: In the last round, five sets of working groups were proposed to set. Do you think you can kind of reach agreement for just one or two, for setting up those working groups?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: We’d like to get them set up. We won't try to meet in these three or four days that we anticipate being in Beijing, but we certainly want to get them set up so that in the next few weeks we can meet and try to make some progress. It's a difficult issue. Many, many years have passed by where this issue has not been resolved, so it's not going to be easy. But we’ll try to do the best we can.

QUESTION: Wu Dawei said -- and he's expecting it will take about three days to wrap up the talks. Do you agree with that view?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I prefer three hours, but three days would be fine. Yes. So I look forward to seeing Mr. Wu Dawei later today, around 4:00, and I'll get ideas directly from him about how long it will take and how were going to try to organize this. But I can tell you that we've worked very well with the Chinese. Japan has worked very well with China on this. So I think we have a good understanding of what we need to get done.

All right? So if you'll excuse me, I need a cup of coffee. I cannot start my day without a cup of coffee. Thank you very much.