Press Availability After Meeting at Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

QUESTION: Does the disablement of the reactor going to take over a year? I mean, we can’t complete it by the end of this year?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Who said that?

QUESTION: Sung Kim.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I think what he is referring to is the discharge of the fuel, the discharge which the North Koreans were prepared to do immediately. We asked them to slow it up because we were worried about some safety concerns. So, I think it has to do with the speed at which you can discharge the fuel, which has entirely to do with safety concerns.

QUESTION: That you mentioned, that is the (inaudible) of speed?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: It has to do with that sort of thing. I mean, I am not the one to speak to the technical issues of it -- except to say the North Koreans wanted to do it faster than we wanted to do it, and the issue was the safety. So we are working on it together. I think that is what he is referring to.

QUESTION: How long does it take to complete discharging?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Let me go have a look, and I will come back and give you an answer. I really don’t know. But I think the issue had entirely to do with the question of how quickly can you do it and preserve safety rules.

QUESTION: Once they get going, you think it’s okay to understand that they are done?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: What, on the –

QUESTION: Discharging.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Yes, we have had very good cooperation on the disabling. In fact, the DPRK was prepared to do discharging much faster than we were prepared to do it, and it has entirely to do with matters of safety and technical issues. So we are not concerned about that.

QUESTION: For other two facilities, you are still concerned that we can finish it by the end of this year?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Oh, I think that everything is fine on disabling. The issue has to do with what is their declaration going to look like. We are fine on disablement. I realize it is a slow news day, you are looking for a story to write, but there is no story on disablement. The story will be on what the declaration looks like.

QUESTION: Mister, would you briefly tell me the issue you talked with Mr. Cho Byung-jae?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, I just talked to him about -- He gave me a briefing on the trip by the Defense Minister to North Korea last night. He told me how it went and what some of the issues were.

QUESTION: Is it related with your intention to meet the military officer?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: No, he is just giving me a briefing on how things were, how things went last night or yesterday with Defense Minister Kim. That’s all.

QUESTION: If you meet Defense Officer in DPRK, what will be the talking points? If you meet the officers in the military area?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Of the North Korean military?

QUESTION: Yes.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Same talking points I use with you and everybody else -- which is, let us finish this job and complete denuclearization.

QUESTION: Mr. Chun also said that the draft of the declaration must come by the time of head of delegation meeting.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Yes, I think that is the idea, so we can discuss it at the head of delegation meeting. That is the idea. I haven’t heard his comments though. So that sounds about right to me. You going to write a story about that too?

QUESTION: How is U.S. paying for the money for disablement?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: With tax dollars.

QUESTION: I mean with a special budget or --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: We have a budget for this, and it comes out of the State Department.

QUESTION: Are you thinking of looking at a Nunn-Lugar project?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I think we are going to look at a lot of things to ensure our goal of complete denuclearization. So I think we would be interested in that kind of thing. But we have to go further and deeper into denuclearization before we can get into that type of issue.

QUESTION: Is that going to be one of the options for funding the dismantlement phase?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: For funding dismantlement? I think we are going to look at all those things in cooperation with our Congress. We have to do some consultations with Congress. We have to see what funds are available. But I think the idea of some Nunn-Lugar program is certainly under study. And as we go forward, we will be working very closely with our Congress on it.

Okay?