Hill Denies Nukes Talks Stalemated, Larry Craig Still Not Gay

One day, I must cease picking on poor Larry Craig. Maybe tomorrow.

Though Hill denies the obvious, at least for now, he’s sticking to his guns on the North Korean declaration:

But Hill said that is not good enough for the “complete and correct declaration” that was promised at the arms talks.

“We cannot pretend that activities don’t exist when we know that the activities have existed,” he said, without giving specifics. [IHT]

North Korea also continues to deny any uranium enrichment activities. Deja U.

The one area where Hill could still claim some progress, the “disablement” of Yongbyon, has now been slowed to “a snail’s pace” because North Korea insists on getting more goodies first. Siegfried Hecker, the sort of man who always sees another concession we should make first, obligingly relays the North Korean line. But on the positive side, U.S. and North Korean experts there are positively chummy.

Hill transcript below the fold (thanks to a reader).

Remarks by Christopher R. Hill
Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
Airport Departure Beijing, China February 19, 2007 4 pm

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I had a good meeting this morning at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs with Mr. He Yafei, who deals with Asia-wide issues. So we discussed various issues in Asia. In addition, beginning at around 11:30 and concluding just a few minutes ago, I met with our DPRK counterpart Kim Kye-gwan at the DPRK Embassy, and we reviewed the overall situation in Phase II with particular attention paid to the issue of the declaration. And I think we had good, substantial discussions — a good exchange of views on that. We agreed we will stay in contact, and now I’m off to Seoul.

QUESTION: Did you have any new ideas of how to move things forward?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: We discussed ideas that China has had and how things could be moved. So it was a good, substantial discussion.

QUESTION: Was that concerning the declaration?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: It was mainly on the declaration, but we also had a look at what the next phase might look like — that is, so-called Phase III. But of course we can’t get to Phase III until we get through Phase II.

QUESTION: Were they prepared to submit full and complete declaration?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, we had a discussion of what we felt, what we believe needs to be included in that. I think they understand our point of view. But we won’t have a complete and correct declaration until we have a complete and correct declaration. So I’m not sure if we yet have an understanding on that. But it was a good exchange of views on it.

QUESTION: So how long do you think you have to wait to get this?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, I want to report on my conversations. I want to give a report on that conversation to Secretary Rice, and obviously we will be discussing it in the next week. And of course she’ll be in the region next week, and I’ll be back in the region. So we’ll see if we can get through this issue. We are going to work very hard on it on the coming weeks, and I think the Chinese are also very interested in doing that. I’ll be seeing Wu Dawei in Tokyo, and I’ll be able to report to him on my discussions with the DPRK.

QUESTION: Any change [inaudible]? What’s the indication from North Korea?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I don’t want to say that, except to say that it was a good and substantial discussion. We really went through all of the elements that we would expect to see in the declaration. And we also discussed the overall fulfillment of Phase II and what we can look ahead to in Phase III. So it was a very complete review of where we are and what we need to do in order to make progress.

QUESTION: Does [inaudible] the Syria project?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Yes, we discussed all of the elements that we believe need to be included, including the Syrian matter and uranium enrichment. So all of the elements.

QUESTION: Sir, you’ve been involved in negotiations with Milosevic for a long time. Do you have any comments on the current situation in Kosovo?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, I am not in the position really to comment on the ongoing situation in Kosovo. Of course, I spent some years there working on what was at the time a broad autonomy deal, in Rambouillet. As I emphasized to the Chinese interlocutors today, it is quite a unique situation in Kosovo — really very unique. There is nothing like it in the world. Secretary Rice made clear in her statement we are pleased at the declaration of independence, and we also feel very strongly that we want to have a good and substantial relationship with Serbia and ultimately with a Balkans that is ultimately at peace and one that is integrated into a European-Atlantic system. OK, we’ll see you later. # # #