AP Television Interview

QUESTION: So, it’s been months of negotiation now. Why do you think it’s going to work this time?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, first of all, these are just initial steps, initial actions. We teed it up pretty carefully; we worked very closely with all the other parties, including the North Koreans. Finally, everyone kind of understands what we are supposed to be doing here. And so I think these are modest steps, and I’ve got to emphasize -- I cannot emphasize enough -- that we can’t just stop with these initial steps. But certainly I think this is doable.

QUESTION: Any timeline? Where do you stand?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, first, for these initial steps we are talking sixty days, so that’s a pretty hurried timeline. But then after that, we would go to our next phase. And that’s where we try to disable, get their nuclear program disabled, and that is where we have to work on some specific timelines. And we’ll be doing that.

QUESTION: What concern is all of the fissile material and security and safety and movement of that?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, I think anytime you have fissile material you have to worry about, especially when you have no idea of where it is. One of the things we would begin to do in this sixty-day period is to start having a discussion about the list, the list of nuclear materials that North Korea is going to have to give up as part of their denuclearization. So, in the next stage, we look for a declaration -- and that’s a full declaration of all the programs. That’s where we should get a pretty clear idea of that fissile material.

QUESTION: You said that the five parties would share the costs of this engagement, but do you estimate cost would be? And how do you figure that Japan feels about being left out of this process, because of its commitment not to finance until their abduction issue is resolved?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, there is (inaudible) from all the four parties, and Japan is welcome into this as soon as Japan can address these issues. That’s why getting the Japan-North Korea working group is so important. So our hope is that mechanism would begin to make headway on this issue. And, frankly, to have a relationship with Japan, the world’s second largest economy, sitting right there in their neighborhood, they really do need to proceed with this. Obviously, it is going to be tough, but we’ve got the mechanism there. And if all goes well, Japan will join in economic and humanitarian assistance.

QUESTION: Has anyone thought of how much this will cost?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, the initial tranche, if you look at the one million tons and if you look at this in terms of heavy fuel oil, current prices are something in the order of two hundred and fifty dollars a ton. So a million tons means $250 million. It’s in that sort of magnitude. Of course, it may be that the North Koreans don’t just want heavy fuel oil. They may want some other things. We want to work with the North Koreans. And as they denuclearize, we want to see if we can help them -- especially help the very impoverished people who are living very difficult lives.

QUESTION: You mentioned humanitarian and economic assistance, then?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: That’s right. But we’ll work this out with the North Koreans. But you know, if they are prepared to denuclearize, we are prepared to move ahead on a number of points.

QUESTION: What was your sense of what they really desired? How important is the normalization of relations with Washington?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, I think they understand that this is a long-term process – a longer-term process – because we made it very clear that we are not going to have a normal relationship while they are holding nuclear weapons. So I think it is important for them to have a relationship with us. But I think they understand that these nuclear weapons, far from being a means of security or prestige, have really acted to isolate North Korea as never before.

QUESTION: When do you see yourself visiting Pyongyang?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Oh, we have to see. I think I should visit when our countries’ interests are served by that. But certainly as a first step I’ve invited my North Korean counterpart to New York. And we are going to be doing our bilateral working groups, and presumably he would want to extend an invitation to me at some point.

QUESTION: Their reputation of monitoring, is that a deep concern of yours?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I think we can handle that. I think we have an idea of how that will work. We have a working group that will delve into some of the details. I think we can get through those things.

QUESTION: What was the key thing that made some of this possible this time?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, what happened was we thought we had this pretty much teed up. But we thought we would take energy and move that to the working group. We had agreed to provide energy at the end of the sixty days, but as for how much, that would all be determined in the working group. But then it turned out the North Koreans wanted an overall figure here in the Six Party agreement.

So rather than consider this an impediment to the agreement, we looked to see. Can we take this interest they have in an overall amount and see if we can get this sort of [inaudible] to the next stage? And that’s what we were ultimately able to do. That is, they will get a shipment of fuel oil at the end of the sixty days, and then they will get additional fuel oil -- but they will have some additional obligations, including disabling their program. So we took what was an impediment and, I think, turned it into a means by which to go deeper into the denuclearization process.

So I think that was sort of the conceptual breakthrough. But, alas, it took more talking than any of us would have liked.

QUESTION: That was just this round actually, right? I mean, what about over the three years this has been going on, what enabled you to reach an agreement at this round?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, I like to think that we worked very closely with the Chinese. I like to think that the North Koreans felt that their isolation was as never before. I like to think that maybe they are having some second thoughts about whether their nuclear programs are all they were cracked up to be.

QUESTION: You mentioned the thirty days to resolve BDA. I mean, can you give more specifics on that? Is that all the accounts?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I can’t at this point, but we said we would resolve them in thirty days. We have had senior level discussions about that. I think we will get that done.

QUESTION: And that was at the Berlin meeting that you discussed that?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I discussed their offer in the Berlin meeting, but we’ve been working very hard to make sure it can be wrapped up.

QUESTION: People say you are caving in -- this was a line that you guys took, and you gave up on these sanctions, and --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, I think you will always have people that think any concession you make is a cave-in, but I think one must understand that in any negotiations both sides have to give. So I think we’ll just have to see what we can do to move the denuclearization process forward.

QUESTION: Is that part of the whole strategy to use that pressure? I mean, you have leverage on one side?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, the North Koreans have been involved in some illicit activities which are, very frankly, unacceptable. You know, you can get away with having a bad human rights record, you can get away with having a bad human rights record and being engaged in illicit activities. But I think it’s tough to get away with having a bad human rights record, having illicit activities, and making nuclear weapons. So I think the North Koreans have found that, increasingly, there was a sense they needed to be scrutinized. It’s no surprise that when you are involved in making weapons of mass destruction, people have a tendency to look at your finances.

QUESTION: And the Treasury issue is being resolved?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, I mean with respect to the BDA, the Banco Delta Asia, we’re prepared to resolve that within thirty days. But with respect to the overall issues, overall financial issues, I think the North Koreans seem to understand that they need to get out of this money laundering business and ultimately start getting out of this nuclear business.

QUESTION: So you still will keep talking about counterfeiting and all these other…

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Yes, these are issues that need to be addressed, and we have been very clear with the North Koreans about that.

QUESTION: Thank you for your time

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: OK. Thank you.