Daily Press Briefing 5/8

QUESTION: Sorry, on North Korea, there is an editorial in The Washington Post which highlights the fact that it's been 24 days since the April 14th deadline. There's been no movement by the North Koreans. They claim that all North Korea has managed to do is to draw more concessions from the U.S. Are you still confident that North Korea intends to abide by its denuclearization commitments? You said yourself that you're not willing to wait an infinite amount of time, so --

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: How much longer are you willing to wait on that?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, we'll let you know. For the time being, we are willing to give this process a little more time. Everybody shares the sense that we wish that we had been able to move beyond this point, but we haven't been up until now. And the North Korean Government has reassured us multiple times throughout this entire period that they are, in fact, committed not only to the September '05 agreement, but the February 13th agreement as well.

And there are indications that they are actively working to resolve the BDA issue. We have said that we're going to give them a little time and space to do that. It's incredibly complicated and arcane, so it has taken much longer than anybody would have expected. What we want to do is get past this particular issue so we can return to the six-party talks, regain some of that momentum, and actually get down to the business of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, because that's ultimately what this is all about.

QUESTION: And just to follow up what you were saying about they're actively working to resolve the BDA issue, is the U.S. pushing for them to start shutting down Yongbyon while they're trying to resolve the BDA issue or are you willing to wait until the BDA issue is resolved?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, obviously, the North Korean Government can take steps on its own volition to begin shutting down the Yongbyon reactor and sealing the Yongbyon reactor. I know that they have had some contacts with the IAEA, so there hasn't been a total absence of action in that regard on the issue of Yongbyon.

What we would like to see is the BDA issue in everybody's rearview mirror so I don't have to answer these questions every single day -- that's just from a purely parochial standpoint -- and really get down to the serious matter of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and plus, Chris Hill hasn't been to Beijing for a while, so I'm sure he's itching to get back.

QUESTION: Same subject?

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah.

QUESTION: On the same subject?

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah, we'll go back here and we'll come up.

QUESTION: Just one follow-up on what you said to her question, then I have another question. The IAEA, has there been any contact since the initial contact back in February?

MR. MCCORMACK: I think there -- you can check with the IAEA, but I think there has been some subsequent contact.

QUESTION: There has been some?

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah, yeah.

QUESTION: Okay. And secondly, are you --

MR. MCCORMACK: I think they would describe it more as informal in its manner, but yeah -- some contact, yeah.

QUESTION: Okay. And on the Washington Post article once again --

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: It keeps on saying that there are -- the Administration has made concessions after concession after concession in giving back all of the money, unfreezing the accounts, working to help transfer. Do you look at these -- does the Administration look at these as concessions or is this part of your obligation as your commitment to resolve the BDA issue?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, it's worth stepping back for a second. The -- let's remember what was -- the issue for the United States Government was the behavior of Banco Delta Asia and its ultimate -- it was ultimately determined that it was a -- part of an ongoing money laundering concern in contravention of U.S. law as well as inter -- customary practices of the international financial system.

So the action was against the Banco Delta Asia. The idea was never to "seize the assets" of Banco Delta Asia. How those -- once the Treasury issued its rule regarding BDA, it was up to the account holders as well as the regulatory authorities in Macau and China how to dispense of the assets that were in BDA. So that -- it ceased to become a U.S. Government issue at that point, as we talked about.

Now since then, we have tried to offer our advice to the various parties in as much as it's asked for regarding any potential transfer of funds out of BDA to some other financial institutions. So that, I expect, is something that the Treasury Department will be involved in as this process unfolds and as appropriate. But beyond that, it is not -- it hasn't been the U.S. Government that has been in charge of how these assets are dispensed out of BDA.

Yeah.

QUESTION: The president of BDA published a statement today saying that actually, they had known for a while, since 1994, that the North Koreans were laundering money in their bank. And so they alerted you that -- they alerted the U.S. and the U.S. asked them to keep the North Koreans as customers to be able to keep an eye on them, but now they feel cheated.

MR. MCCORMACK: Right. No, I saw that and what I have been told is that this particular allegation has been made as part of a filing with the Treasury Department by Mr. Au and -- or his representatives. And it's -- I further understand that it's going to be reviewed in due course, in an appropriate manner by officials at Treasury and wherever else they might review those things. So, inasmuch as it's part of an official filing, I really can't offer any further comment, other than to say people are going to look at it.

QUESTION: But you don't deny.

MR. MCCORMACK: I -- yeah, people are going to look at it. I can't vouch for the accuracy of what he said, I'm not trying to, you know, I'm not trying to turn you away from it, but I can't vouch for the accuracy and people are going to be reviewing it.

Daily Press Briefing -- May 8