Additional Remarks to the Press in Northern Mongolia

QUESTION: So, comment of the U.S. Government?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Obviously this is an important step. So we have to get the IAEA in there, the international inspectors. They need to reach an agreement with the North Koreans to find out how they are going to do this. Then we need to take this step and try to use this as a springboard to the next step and the step after that. We are not here just to shut down the reactor. What we want to do is complete the process so that North Korea is completely denuclearized, as they agreed in the September '05 statement.

QUESTION: How did you know this news?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Actually, here I am here in Mongolia -- we are halfway from Ulaanbaatar to Siberia -- so we are a long way from anywhere. But I heard it from an email from an international wire service. So what we did was we immediately called the State Department, and I spoke to some people on my team. And they called the North Koreans in New York to confirm. So it is confirmed that the North Koreans have invited back the international inspectors for the purpose of shutting down the reactor.

QUESTION: What do you think of this (inaudible)?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: This is a good day, but we have many days ahead of us.