THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary _________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release June 20, 1994 PRESS BRIEFING BY DEE DEE MYERS The Briefing Room 2:16 P.M. EDT ................... Q Dee Dee, on the Korea business, while the United States is trying to verify exactly what Jimmy Carter achieved in North Korea, effectively is the sanctions option on hold? MS. MYERS: No, it's not on hold. In fact, consultations are ongoing today in New York. Ambassador Albright met with the Russian representative to the U.N. today to discuss the sanctions resolution. I think that they reached additional agreement in the direction that that resolution is moving. And we'll continue to consult until we're able to verify that North Korea is, in fact, committed to freezing their nuclear program while additional talks would move forward. Q You're not going to push forward for a vote until you complete the verification process. MS. MYERS: I think we're moving forward in the U.N. now. We're working with other countries. We're in the consultation process. I don't think we've slowed anything down at this point. And, again, Ambassador Albright had a very good meeting today with Representative Vorontsov. Q What do you mean very good? I mean, does that mean you have a positive reaction on a resolution? MS. MYERS: Yes. Making progress on that, and we'll continue to consult this week in New York. Q So they will vote for it? MS. MYERS: There's been no voted scheduled yet, but we're moving forward. Consultations will continue. And there is no intention of slowing that process down. .................. Q Could you just give us a definition as of this moment what the administration believes that Jimmy Carter accomplished in Korea, how you describe it right now? MS. MYERS: Well, I think as we said yesterday, that this is possibly an opening. We need to verify that through diplomatic channels. We're in that process this week. I think we need to verify that they are in fact willing to freeze their nuclear program while talks are ongoing. As we've said repeatedly, what that means is they won't refuel the reactor; they won't reprocess the fuel they recently removed from the reactor; and they'll allow the continuity of safeguards to be enforced. That means keeping the U.N. inspectors on the ground, keeping the monitoring equipment in place, and generally allowing the continuity of safeguards to be ensured. While that process continues, while the diplomatic process continues, to find out exactly what they meant and to guarantee that they are committed to that, we will move forward in New York with the sanctions resolution, as we've been doing today, as we'll continue to do this week. Q Including a vote? MS. MYERS: If it comes to that. We're moving forward. Nothing has been -- there's been no change in our posture in New York. We're moving forward on the resolution at this point. We'll see how things proceed. Again, we always said -- I just want to point out that we always believed this would take some time. We began consulting on this last week. Consultations are continuing this week. Again, Ambassador Albright had a good meeting today with the Russian representative. We'll continue to move forward. But we always thought it would take sometime before we got agreement. Q Do we now have any new or alternative method of communicating with North Korea that we didn't have before the Carter visit or that we're now seeking to establish? MS. MYERS: No, and I don't think there's any new alternate method of communication. I mean, certainly President Carter was a new source of information. There hadn't been any direct -- there have not been any other direct contacts between the U.S. government and the North Korean government. There is a channel that exists in New York. That's one of the options for pursuing diplomatic talks this week. But I don't think there's any particularly new structure. Q On balance, does the administration feel that Carter's trip was worthwhile? MS. MYERS: I think the President answered that this morning. He thought it was -- he was grateful for President Carter going. And we'll see what comes out of it. I think it's too soon to say what the results will be, but it may have created an opening, and that would certainly be a positive step. Again, it would be very useful if North Korea was willing to freeze its nuclear program. That is one of our objectives in this -- is to get them to freeze their nuclear program, to guarantee a nuclear-free peninsula, and a comprehensive nonproliferation regime. Those are certainly things that we'll continue to pursue. Q How much time do you expect it will take to verify whether the North Koreans meant what they said? MS. MYERS: I don't think we know. Again, one of the things we'll do this week is begin to explore that, to begin to reach out to diplomatic channels to the North Koreans and find out exactly what they are willing to do. But we don't have any particular timetable. Q North Koreans -- (inaudible) -- from Mr. Carter or what? Because it is kind of a changing position. MS. MYERS: I think that, certainly, that -- I don't speak for the North Koreans, but I think that they were becoming increasingly isolated. I think they saw what was happening. They are being increasingly isolated from the world community. There was a serious discussion about sanctions moving forward. I don't know exactly what caused them to move forward and to reach out to President Carter, but if it means that they're willing to freeze their nuclear program, that they won't refuel, that they won't reprocess, that they'll allow the continuity of safeguards to go forward, that's potentially good. Q Does the message that Jimmy Carter brought back from North Korea take some of the sense of urgency out of the movement toward sanctions that the U.S. is pushing for? MS. MYERS: No, I think we'll continue to consult. We're continuing to move forward in New York. And I think that should diplomatic channels not be able to bear out North Korea's commitment to move forward, then I think that will just reinforce the need to move to sanctions. Q Could repeat -- about what -- sorry -- what Vorontsov said this morning to Madeleine Albright in U.N. Did he commit Russia to support and to vote in favor of sanctions if it comes to a vote? MS. MYERS: Well, I think I'll let them speak -- I don't want to suggest that. And I'll let them speak for themselves. But I think there was good progress in the meeting today, that they generally agreed on a general direction. And I think that they felt the results of meeting were very good. Foreign Minister Kozyrev and Secretary of State Warren Christopher will meet in Brussels tomorrow. So I think consultations are ongoing with the Russians at many levels. Q Dee Dee -- President decided which of Secretary Perry's options to follow up on the buildup of American forces -- MS. MYERS: We will do everything we feel is necessary to certainly protect our troops in South Korea, to protect South Korea through our treaty commitments, and to protect the safety of the region and our allies in the region. Beyond that, I'm not prepared to get into discussing military options. Q proceeding at the same pace that it was last Thursday and Friday? MS. MYERS: Again, certainly we're doing everything that we feel is necessary to protect our interest in the region, and beyond that I'm not going to say. Q Has he made a choice among the options, without identifying -- MS. MYERS: I'm not going to discussion specific military options. That's not -- Q I'm not asking you to discussion the options, I'm just asking whether he's made a decision or not. MS. MYERS: I'm not even going to -- I'm not even going to discuss specifically whether he's made any choices. Q Can you discuss the reports that the South Koreans have moved heavy weapons into the DMZ? MS. MYERS: We see news accounts along those lines. There's nothing to verify that. I think we've categorized these as North Korean propaganda. Q Kim has also seemed to demand that the United States declare that peninsula denuclearized and to officially confirm that we would not attack them with nuclear weapons. Are we prepared to do that in this current go-round? MS. MYERS: I think what we're doing at this point is trying to ascertain what they mean by freezing their nuclear program as reported by President Carter. And we're going to move forward on that track, and that's what we're doing at this point. Q But we're not responding on what we're prepared to do? MS. MYERS: No. Q Have you heard from any North Korean officials directly? Has the White House? MS. MYERS: No. We're in the process of determining how we want to proceed with contacts. Were looking at a number of options at this point. Q Has the United States backed away from the earlier condition for a third round of talks by no longer insisting on verifying the 1989 nuclear business? MS. MYERS: What we said earlier was that if North Korea -- this is during the talks about reestablishing a third round -- that if North Korea defueled their reactor in such a way as to make it impossible for the IAEA, through measurements, to determine what had happened in 1989, that we would end the process toward the third round. We said at the time, which was June 3rd, when the IAEA said they could not longer determine from the fuel rods what had happened in 1989, we said at the time that it would be up to North Korea to reestablish the basis for talks. They have -- if they agree to freeze their nuclear program while the talks go forward, that could be a basis for reestablishing the third round. Once we get to the third round, we'll certainly discuss ways to determine what happened in the past, their previous nuclear activities. That has always been envisioned as a topic for the third round. Can we move onto health care -- can we switch to health care so we can -- Q Do you know -- U.S. going to -- (inaudible) -- if you're entering the -- MS. MYERS: It's -- that is all being discussed -- exactly how -- what, in a third round? Q Yes. MS. MYERS: No, that's something that we would decide later. Certainly, the leader of the team of the senior advisers on North Korea is Robert Gallucci, Assistant Secretary of State. ................ Q (inaudible) MS. MYERS: Unclear. Thanks. END 2:44 P.M. EDT #177-06/20
