Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

(...)

QUESTION: Do you have anything on reports that North Korea has recently been selling missile components to Yemen?

MR. BOUCHER: There have been, I think, a very public statement by the Government of Yemen about that situation so there's not much that I can add from our point of view because I think anything further would require delving into intelligence on that.

The issue of North Korea's missile activities, of course, is one that we follow very closely. We think those missile proliferation activities pose a continuing threat to regional stability and security and to our friends and our forces and our interests, and so we've continued to take steps to address North Korea's missile efforts and to work closely with other countries in assuring that these are curtailed.

QUESTION: About North Korea?

MR. BOUCHER: Yes.

QUESTION: I presume that you're pleased that the Russians and the Chinese have joined in the IAEA call and your call for the North Koreans to give up their weapons program?

MR. BOUCHER: Yeah, we've seen the statement that President Jiang and President Putin issued in Beijing. I think our view is that the more often the international community makes clear to the North Koreans that only by complying will they be able to seek the benefits, or obtain the benefits they seek from the international community, the more frequently we do that, the better.

I think we talked last week about the statement from the IAEA Board of Directors that was quite specific in terms of the need for the North Koreans to end their nuclear enrichment activities, their nuclear weapons programs. The presidents of China and Russia today talked about a de-nuclearized peninsula, which obviously means they have to end these nuclear weapons programs.

So I think it's quite important that North Korea continue to hear this message and listen to it carefully and understand that only by promptly and verifiably dismantling these programs will they get the benefits they seek from the outside world.

QUESTION: When the Secretary -- Assistant Secretary Kelly was in Beijing, or actually I think it was Under Secretary Bolton was in Beijing, I mean, did such a statement -- was such a statement recommended or discussed or floated?

MR. BOUCHER: I don't know if they talked about it specifically. I think this whole issue of how we all need to continue to make this clear has been discussed very carefully with the Chinese during President Jiang's visit to Crawford and the statements that you saw issued there during meetings such as the meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Directors last Friday, where the Russians and Chinese, I think, both participate and in all the various contacts our embassies have. So the general topic of making this point clear to North Korea in public and in private has certainly been discussed, but whether a specific statement from these meetings was discussed, I just don't know.

(...)

QUESTION: Can I ask one more on that?

MR. BOUCHER: Okay.

QUESTION: Sorry. That same statement today also called on the United States and North Korea to improve relations. I know that you've been looking at this as impossible before the North Koreans start dismantling the program, but obviously the Chinese and the Russians are not on the same page on this.

Is that right?

MR. BOUCHER: I don't know, as you read the statement, how to interpret exactly any sequencing or not from them on this. Our view, I think, has been made quite clear. Jim Kelly went out there to talk. He went out there to tell them we were prepared to take a bold approach to improving relations, but that that would be impossible as long as these nuclear weapons programs continued; and therefore, that in order to improve these relations, in order to take these steps, North Korea would have to promptly and verifiably dismantle those programs.

(...)

Thank you.
[End]