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
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