U.S. Relations With the People's Republic of China (2008)

U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing

Sean McCormack, Spokesman
Washington, DC
December 10, 2008

10:35 a.m. EST

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: On North Korea, there were reports overnight quoting South Korea's Foreign Minister, I think, as saying that North Korea had refused to -- it might have been the South Korean head of delegation -- I simply don't remember now, I'm sorry -- as saying that North Korea had refused to allow samples to be removed from its nuclear facilities. Is that true?

MR. MCCORMACK: I'll check for you. I don't know. I don't know what we have done in terms of sampling. I know sampling is an issue in the verification protocol in the discussions that are ongoing now in Beijing. I think Chris is giving a little bit of a blow by blow in terms of coming and going from the meetings. I haven't spoken with Chris, so I can't offer any more detail than he has offered you, just to repeat what he said. Thus far, the discussions haven't trended in the right direction.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: To whether or not, to this point, their position has been that they will refuse to allow samples to be removed.

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, there's an understanding that we arrived at in the negotiations with North Korea regarding sampling. And that is part of the exercise that is ongoing in Beijing right now, is to get all of those understandings initialed and agreed upon so that there is a common understanding among the Six Parties. We haven't succeeded in that. I would only refer back to the briefing we had here a couple of months ago -- I can't even remember the date -- with myself, Sung Kim and a couple others in which we talked about the agreement that had been arrived at with North Korea on behalf of all the other parties.

We'll see how it turns out. We know it was agreed to. It's a matter of now getting that initialed by all of the parties, and we'll see where the discussions turn out.

At the moment, Chris is scheduled to leave Beijing tomorrow afternoon, their time. So we'll -- you know, we'll see. I mean, it could be the case that he does keep to a schedule or it could be the case that if there are productive discussions, he continues to stay there. So we'll see how things evolve.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: Considering that you took North Korea off the terrorism list already, what leverage do you have at this point in this particular process in Beijing right now to get them to sign on to the understandings you believed you had?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, at the time -- at the time of our briefing, we also released a list, a multi-page list of all the various other sanctions that continue to apply to North Korea. So that act notwithstanding, North Korea does not have a normal relationship with the rest of the world, never mind the United States. And part of this process whereby North Korea would denuclearize, and the Korean Peninsula would be denuclearized, is that North Korea would gradually come to have a more normal relationship with the rest of the world and thereby gain benefits, have more interaction with the rest of the world, it could be more economic opportunities, a lot of other things that would redound to the benefit of the North Korean people.

That's not where we are at this point. So there's a lot of -- there is a lot of leverage. There's a lot of incentive for North Korea. Now, whether or not the North Korean regime decides that those incentives and those possible benefits are worth changing their behavior is a calculation only they can make. We can set out the different visions. We can lay out the incentives -- we, meaning the other five parties. But it's going to be up to them whether or not they take up the other five parties on that pathway.

There is, of course, another pathway, and we all know what that is. We're focused on trying to go down the more positive pathway, and we'll see what decision, what calculation the North Korean regime makes.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: North Korea state media Choson Central News Agency reported today that U.S. Government publicly acknowledged North Korea as a nuclear power for the first time. They cited a recent Defense Department annual report which has stated that there are five nuclear powers in Asia, which are China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Russia. So what is your comment on North Korea's claim that U.S. Government publicly acknowledged them as a nuclear power?

MR. MCCORMACK: That is not our national policy, and that document does not -- the document they referenced does not represent the official views of the United States.

QUESTION: Thank you.

(The briefing was concluded at 11:05 a.m.)