NORTHEAST ASIA PEACE AND SECURITY NETWORK ***** SPECIAL REPORT ***** October 26, 1998 The following is the complete transcript of the press briefing given by a senior US official on Saturday, October 24, regarding the just-completed third plenary session of the four-party Korean peace talks in Geneva. The official was speaking on "background" and therefore was not identified. The US State Department transcript was provided by the United States Information Agency (USIA) on October 26. Media reports and officials' statements concerning the session were included in the October 26 Daily Report. -------------------- U.S. DELEGATION TO THE FOUR PARTY TALKS BACKGROUND BRIEFING BY SENIOR AMERICAN OFFICIAL Geneva October 24, 1998 SENIOR AMERICAN OFFICIAL: What I'd like to do is to give you a slight flavor of how the process went and then I will be glad to answer your questions. First of all, we started on the 21st, on Wednesday. That day was dedicated to a plenary session. All of our delegations of approximately seven at the front table on each side were here. The Chairman, Ambassador Park from the Republic of Korea, opened the session and quite frankly he did a marvelous job throughout the four days. I cannot say enough about his leadership that provided quite frankly a very fair setting for all sides to air their comments and to respond without concern. The plenary session opened with opening remarks, a keynote, in which the positions that we all know were repeated, basically to put us back into a frame of mind where we left off last March when we were unable to conclude that meeting successfully. The afternoon was spent in responding to those remarks and putting together the positions that we would take for the rest of the week. On Thursday morning, as you may be aware, there was another forum and that was a head-of-delegations meeting that occurred in the morning that was attended by the heads, the deputies, and the note taker and that was the extent of who was in the room. There was a good deal of discussion there, and it was decided that it would be a good opportunity to yet again break down to a smaller and a lower level grouping and so by the direction of the four heads of the delegates, the deputies met Thursday afternoon for about two hours, in a room adjacent to here very similar to this setup, with interpreters, and a couple of people on each side. We began the process of putting together a draft of the memorandum on the establishment and operations of the subcommittees. That process ultimately lasted seven hours. We reconvened the following day, Friday, and went for about five hours continuously without breaking. So what I'd like you to understand is not that the paper that you see is just the representation of some very basic agreements on how we would conduct subcommittees in the future, but also during this seven hours period, we had an opportunity to talk at great length on issues that are of concern to each party. So the point that I make is that we are further down the road on understanding each party's position, so that when we meet again and the subcommittees are convened, we would be at the point in time to begin substantive work as it is outlined here in this paper. That's not to say that the deputies saved the day or did anything other than provide a basic document, which the heads of delegations then began to examine, first yesterday afternoon, then for about four and half hours today. What they did was to change the character of it, move things around, and quite frankly came up with a better document, which is why they are the heads of delegation. (laughter.) And in the end, we were able, at 2:30 this afternoon, to conclude the agreement that you see before us. Now from the American point of view, this is the progress which we expected and anticipated, and the minimum which we would consider successful. So we do consider this a successful round. We have moved this process forward , we have removed underbrush from beneath us, and we will be able to, I think, conduct some very useful meetings from here on out, particularly at the subcommittees' level. The one item that we wish that we would have been able to do was to be able to convene the subcommittees during this session. We came prepared to do that, but in all fairness to the other delegations, when you begin to break down to the subcommittee level, you require some degree of expertise. We took that into consideration and ultimately agreed, and this is the product that you have. So with these opening remarks, I'll turn it over to questions. Q: The North Korean head of delegation was outside just now speaking to the press, and he said that his country still insists on the withdrawal of the U.S. troops from South Korea, and on a separate U.S.-North Korea peace treaty. How does this position affect the process, is the U.S. position negotiable, is there flexibility? Also, will the subcommittees have negotiation powers? SENIOR AMERICAN OFFICIAL: First of all, Minister Kim, who is representing himself, is correct. The North Korean delegates did reassert their desire to have the withdrawal of U.S. forces and a separate peace agreement as agenda items up for discussion. The United States very clearly, unequivocally, said that that is not an agenda item which we are prepared to discuss. In terms of flexibility, there are a great many things within the full range of tension reduction measures that we are prepared to talk about. And there are a number of things from which the Korean peninsula, I believe, can benefit, if we get on with our business and begin with those steps that quite obviously must occur, moderately and first, to build the confidence that allows you to move on. You asked about the level. The subcommittees will not have negotiating power in the sense that they will reach an agreement that is binding on the groups. You may tell by looking at the document that they will report their work to the plenary and heads of delegation. It is the right and responsibility of the heads of delegation to review that work, to modify it, and accept or reject it. Q: Can you tell us anything about the bilateral discussions that were held. And will Ambassador Kartman go to Pyongyang in the future? SENIOR AMERICAN OFFICIAL: As you know, we always attempt to take the opportunity when we meet in this setting for bilateral meetings. This time we had bilaterals not only with the North Koreans, but with the Chinese delegation and with our Republic of Korea allies as well. We did have bilateral sessions, more than one, with the North Korean delegation and discussed a complete range of issues that are of interest to the United States, and we listened to those that are of interest to the North Koreans. You asked specifically if Ambassador Kartman was going to North Korea, and expanding on what your question is, do we have an agreement to go to North Korea to begin the process of talking about issues that are of concern to us? Well the answer is that we did talk about that issue. We talked at length in terms of the date and the venue where those talks would take place, and I think we will be prepared soon to make an announcement about that, but I am not here today to make that announcement. Q: Was there any discussion of the enlargement of the talks to include Japan, Russia, and Mongolia? What are the prospects for this? SENIOR AMERICAN OFFICIAL: That subject was not brought up by any delegation and was not talked about at all informally or during bilateral sessions. Q: Did you notice any change in North Korea's negotiating position? SENIOR AMERICAN OFFICIAL: No I would not characterize a change in the North Koreans' tactics or policy. I would just merely comment. We have a new series of delegates for the Chinese here today, and I should have mentioned earlier when I talked about the quality of the chairmanship by the Republic of Korea, likewise Ambassador Qian of the Chinese delegation, and his entire delegation, most of whom were new to us, came in as though they were here for the previous two meetings. They were a major contributor to the arrival of this agreement. Q: In your bilaterals with the North Koreans, did you discuss the problem of the subterranean installation and the rocket launch? SENIOR AMERICAN OFFICIAL: As I said, we talked about all of the issues of concern to us. We began that discussion of those topics when we met bilaterally with the DPRK in New York from the twenty-first of August to the fifth of September. You know those results. Each and every time we have an opportunity, we continue that discussion. Thank you. ---------------------------------------------------- End of transcript xxx