Remarks After U.S., Japan, South Korea Meeting

(12:20 p.m. EST)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY KELLY: I'm Jim Kelly, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific. And I first of all want to thank my colleagues, Director General Yabunaka of Japan, Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-Hyuck of the Republic of Korea, for coming all the way to Washington at a cold time of the year, especially for Ambassador Lee, this is a five-day holiday in Korea and I really appreciate him breaking his holiday to come here to Washington to meet with us.

We have taken the time today to talk about continuation of the six-party talks. The six-party talks to resolve the weapons issue of North Korea is something, of course, that's very important for us. We wanted to compare notes about the talks we had with China, with Russia, with each other, gather all the information, because we are very hopeful that we will soon have the continuation of the six-party talks, but we don't have any date at this time. There are no preconditions. We hope the DPRK will soon come to join us in the talks.

We very much appreciate the effort the Chinese have made in helping to set the conditions in which the talks can continue, and we hope for progress when they resume.

For the point of view of the U.S.A, President Bush's policy remains steadfast: it is for the peaceful resolution of this issue through diplomatic means, and we want the complete, verifiable and irreversible end of the North Korean nuclear programs. And we would emphasize complete in that, which means that there has to be some form of agreement to dismantle the uranium side, the plutonium side and the weapons themselves. This is possible, and we are very hopeful that this will be developed as we continue the six-party talks.

So, with those remarks, I would ask my colleagues if there's anything they care to say. Director General Yabunaka.

DIRECTOR GENERAL YABUNAKA: Thank you very much. Thank you, Jim. Japan is also very much committed to carrying out the current issue the resolutions of this nuclear missile reduction issues, and then can normalize relations, and certainly then we can provide economic assistance.

We would like to resolve these nuclear issues in order to arrive at the nuclear-free North Korea, but six-party talks is the (inaudible). This is only way that we can achieve this goal, and certainly we hope that early convening of the second round talks, and there, of course, we can discuss all issues related to these issues.

So that's where we are.

DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER LEE: I am the Deputy Foreign Minister of Republic of Korea. Our three delegations remain committed to the peaceful resolution through six-party talks. We urge North Korea to come to Beijing without any preconditions.

Thank you very much.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY KELLY: We'll take two or three questions. In the back.

QUESTION: Is there any possibility that there was a misunderstanding of what was said at that October 2002 meeting? Are you absolutely sure that they acknowledged the uranium program? And do you have any idea why they're now saying otherwise?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY KELLY: No, I don't know why. We received a very short excerpt, apparently, or possibly, from the dialogue I had in October of 2002. I remain convinced by that conversation that a uranium enrichment program was admitted.

But I knew that before. We weren't asking for such an admission and it was surprising only in terms of tactics. This is information that we're very strongly convinced about, and so we'll study what's being said, but I don't envision any change in existing policies.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, there are some concerns over withdrawing all the U.S. forces from Yongsan base. What do you think of those concerns?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY KELLY: With the Republic of Korea, the U.S. has been recently in a number of joint discussions, some as recently as in Hawaii last week, about the disposition of U.S. forces inside the Republic of Korea. These joint discussions have reached an agreement in which most of our headquarters and support people will leave the Yongsan garrison.

For Americans' information, the Yongsan garrison is a very sizeable camp just in the central part of a very great city, and so this joint decision is one that I think will be helpful, and it in no way will affect our ability to fulfill our responsibilities for the defense of Korea at any time. If anything, it may enhance that ability. It's a just rationalization involved -- involving costs and the best way to arrange our forces there, and it's part of a larger discussion with our allies that goes on and I expect to continue.

Ambassador Lee, do you want to make any comments about that?

DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER LEE: Well, as Assistant Secretary Kelly said, the relocation of Yongsan garrison doesn't affect the security, and this agreement was reached between two governments.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, did you discuss about the -- anything about the U.S. unofficial delegation which visited Yongbyon (inaudible)?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY KELLY: We compared the press clippings we've had and the briefings that some of the members of that delegation have given to us. I think most, if not all, of what they saw is in the public domain based on these recent visits. We hope the DPRK doesn't misjudge the private delegations. It is interesting, but we hope it doesn't distract or delay the process of getting to serious work among the several countries to get to resolving the nuclear weapons program of North Korea.

QUESTION: (In Japanese.)

DIRECTOR GENERAL YABUNAKI: (In Japanese.)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY KELLY: Thank you very much.

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