Remarks With South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Chun Young-woo

QUESTION: (Speaking Korean)

DEPUTY MINISTER CHUN: (Speaking Korean)

QUESTION: Mr. Hill, do you have any plans for a trilateral with Japan (inaudible)?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: First of all, I need a translation.

(To Deputy Minister Chun) What did you just tell them? I don’t want to contradict you.

DEPUTY MINISTER CHUN: I told them that we reviewed together the result of the current session of the Six-Party Talks, and we agreed that every certain agreement should be examined, implemented as scheduled, and Republic of Korea will do these two obligations as long as DPRK is ready to move into action as scheduled according to the February 13^th agreement. So, that’s the point I made.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: OK. I’m sorry, what was the question?

QUESTION: Did you have any plans to hold a trilateral with South Korea and Japan to coordinate the (inaudible)?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: We’ve had them in the past, and we will certainly have them in the future. I don’t think we have an immediate plan to have them. But we are certainly in contact all the time, and I am sure we will do that at some point in the future.

Let me just say this was a great opportunity to review the week’s events with my colleague and good friend, Ambassador Chun Young-woo. We had a nice Korean meal -- bulgogi, kalguksu(?), and just about everything you want except sundubu. But it was OK; it was great.

We really are interested in making sure we get our February agreement fully implemented. I think we both felt that the DPRK is prepared to do that. They need to get through this banking issue as I described earlier, but we are pretty confident that that can happen. And we are looking forward to working closely together. I think this Six-Party process is really one that not only will get this denuclearization issue done, but I think it will help create a better sense of community within the neighborhood.

QUESTION: Do you have any plans to go to North Korea?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I don’t have any immediate plans. I am sure that will come up at some point, but we don’t have any immediate plans to do that.

QUESTION: If you do, would it be before the end of sixty days?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, I don’t know. It depends to some extent on when or whether I am invited, but I am sure at some point it will come up. What I am focused on is making sure we get our September and February agreements implemented. We have a long way to go. We have many other issues ahead of us, problems ahead of us. But I think we have made a good start to this process, and I think the ROK and the U.S., together with the Japanese and others, I think we can work through these issues.

QUESTION: Mr. Kim Gye-gwan went back to Pyongyang unexpectedly. What do you think about that?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: It wasn’t so unexpected. As you’d recall, we were planning for three days. The flight schedule to Pyongyang is not daily, but in fact Thursday is one of the flights. So for us it was not so surprising. We wish we had been able to resolve these technical issues and move on. But I know China is working very hard, probably through the night, to see what can be done to transfer these funds. I think everyone is working hard on this.

QUESTION: Are you leaving tomorrow morning?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I am leaving tomorrow, but I don’t know the flight.

QUESTION: (Speaking Korean)

DEPUTY MINISTER CHUN: (Speaking Korean)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I am going to go back to Washington. After that we will be in close contact and figure out when we get back together with the Six Parties.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) financial review (inaudible)?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I think we've got the right process for dealing with this, and I am pretty confident that we’ll get through our February agreement and then go on from there.

OK.

DEPUTY MINISTER CHUN: Thank you.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: See you all again.