Fourth Round of Six-Party Talks: Hotel Arrival

A/S HILL: Hi, how are you? Well, I just got off the plane from Washington and I’ve got a huge team here from Washington. We are really looking forward to these negotiations. It’s going to take a little time. It’s going to take a lot of work. But, we come here in a real spirit of trying to make some real progress. As Secretary Rice said when she was here a couple of weeks ago, we’re really going to roll up our sleeves and do the best we can to make sure we achieve some progress. It’s obviously a very important negotiation, something we’re very much committed to and I look forward to meeting all the other delegations and to working with the members of my team and see what we can do. So, I will try to brief you all from time to time and keep you all informed. As for how long this is going to take, I have no idea. I did pack a few extra shirts. I suspect some of you may have done the same. So, thank you very much. Great to see you all.

QUESTION: What will progress look like?

QUESTION: What is the ticket to a success?

A/S HILL: Well, I don’t know. It’s tough to say at this point except that we are going to work very hard and we are very committed to seeing if we can make some very serious progress here.

QUESTION: What will progress look like? What can we expect?

A/S HILL: Well, you know I wouldn’t expect this to be the last set of negotiations. The negotiations have been in suspension really for over a year. So, we have to see where we go with these. We would like to make some measurable progress, progress that we can build on for a subsequent set of negotiations. But, at this point it is hard to tell until we really sit down. The six part negotiations will get going some time tomorrow night. So, thank you very much.

QUESTION: So, what’s your plan for the next two days? Will you be meeting the North Korean delegation?

A/S HILL: Well, we will be doing a lot of consultations and begin the overall negotiations tomorrow night at some meetings. I think the Foreign Minister of China will get us all together tomorrow night. Then, the plenary, I think, begins Tuesday morning. So we’ll be having consultations with all the parties. Thanks a lot.