U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing

QUESTION: The US team at Kumchang-ni -- what did they find, and how many more days are they planning to stay?

MR. RUBIN: They continued their work. I'm not in a position to report their findings. They will have to report into official channels before I am in a position to report to you on what their findings are. They'll stay as long as necessary to satisfy themselves that the work has been completed and they have the necessary access to the facility and to continue their work. There is no time limit set, and they will make that decision. But it's my understanding they're still there as of today.

QUESTION: Did they give any indication of how much cooperation they were receiving from --

MR. RUBIN: If there had been problems, I think I probably would have heard about them. I haven't heard about them. But bear in mind, they're in North Korea, so the communication has not been perfect. But so far as I've been made aware, they've been receiving the necessary cooperation.

QUESTION: Jamie, William Perry is going to be going there. I guess he leaves over the weekend and gets there next week. I don't expect you to give us any of the incentives, specifics on them, as to what he'll be bringing with him, but can you speak to those critics who say we've already done enough and we've already given enough and we need to get something back from the North Koreans before we would offer them any other incentives? And specifically, to stop proliferating?

MR. RUBIN: First of all, let me say that Dr. Perry is not going to North Korea to negotiate and offer incentives in some negotiation. He's going there to get an assessment as the final piece in his review to try to ascertain whether the North Koreans want to see a change in their relationship with the outside world. This trip is the culmination of an extraordinary set of consultations and detailed discussions with leaders in South Korea, with leaders in Japan, with congressional leaders, with the President, with the Secretary of State, trying to ascertain whether there is a willingness in Pyongyang to make fundamental changes in their policy.

We do not believe that anything we've done so far has done anything other than advance the national security of the United States. Most of those who have objected to our policies have proposed no alternatives. We've managed to achieve the freezing of the nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, something that most people thought couldn't happen. We've managed to achieve the access to the site without any compensation, which most people thought couldn't happen. Because we don't base our relationship on trust -- we base it on verification - we have no illusions about the North Korean regime. But we want to ascertain whether, through a step-by-step process that deals with the proliferation concerns you mentioned - that is, the North's willingness to test long-range missiles and medium-range missiles and sell ballistic missiles - can be constrained through discussions.

We also want to make sure that the limited nature of the Agreed Framework, which only applies to one site, can be made more comprehensive so that we can achieve the objectives that I'm sure both we and our critics share, which is to make sure that North Korea is not in a position to present a danger of non-proliferation of either nuclear weapons or missiles to the world. We think that a visit by Dr. Perry to obtain a first-hand discussion with the leadership in North Korea will help us to make judgments about how to proceed.

QUESTION: When Secretary Albright announced the dates of the trip yesterday, she said that Dr. Perry would be meeting with senior North Korean officials. I'm wondering if you can tell us if not who exactly he'll be meeting with, at what kind of level they are? Are they in the Foreign Ministry; are they in the executive --

MR. RUBIN: I don't have the schedule to offer you right now. As we get a little closer to that, I can try to get you that. I can say that we do expect meetings with a range of high-level North Korean officials, and these will constitute the bulk of the team's schedule in Pyongyang. A meeting with Kim Jung-Il would, of course, be desirable.

QUESTION: So Dr. Perry will not be offering to lift the trade embargo when he goes to Pyongyang, as one newspaper reported today?

MR. RUBIN: What Dr. Perry will be doing will be exploring the views of the North Korean leadership about where they want this relationship to go. He will not be offering or negotiating anything. He will be exploring what their views are so that as he completes his assessment of North Korea policy and American policy towards North Korea and discusses that with the Japanese and the South Koreans, that he can present the President and the Secretary of State the most comprehensive view of what is possible, what is not possible and what is worth pursuing.

QUESTION: Would it be fair to say that we'd be laying out a road map with opportunities to improve the relationship along the way?

MR. RUBIN: No, he would be - it will be an opportunity for him to obtain first-hand authoritative policy views from the senior levels of the North Korean leadership, which is the kind of thing that's pretty difficult to obtain.

QUESTION: When you said that a meeting with Kim Jung-Il would be desirable, does that - is it implied in that that a representation to the North Koreans has been made, that Dr. Perry would like to have this?

MR. RUBIN: I'd rather not get into the diplomatic details. That is our view that we would regard such a meeting as desirable. Every discussion we and the North Koreans have about the schedule, I don't think needs to be made public.

QUESTION: On a purely logistical matter -- and maybe you can't tell me yet - do you expect him to meet the South Koreans and the Japanese together in Tokyo before he goes to Pyongyang or after or --

MR. RUBIN: The delegation plans to stop in Tokyo for bilateral meetings with Japan and South Korean officials and a trilateral meeting on May 24 before going to Pyongyang on May 25. On its return, May 28, after briefing the Secretary and the President, probably by phone, the delegation will stop in Seoul and similarly have bilateral meetings with the South Korean and Japanese officials, along with a trilateral on May 29. So going in it will be in Japan; going out will be South Korea with the same group.

QUESTION: Would you rule out that subjects like the easing of sanctions or the potential of reestablishing diplomatic relations would come up during Mr. Perry's visit?

MR. RUBIN: I don't think it would be useful for me to speculate on what Dr. Perry will or won't say.

QUESTION: Just to clarify, he will not be stopping in China, either going in or going out?

MR. RUBIN: Not according to the schedule I have right now.