Christopher R. Hill says patience and perseverance needed with North Korea



“They were prepared to give a declaration which wasn’t going to be complete and correct,” said Washington’s top envoy to nuclear talks with North Korea, Christopher R. Hill, “and we felt that it was better for them to give us a complete one even if it’s going to be a late one. “So I think we have to have a little sense of patience and perseverance,” he told reporters in Tokyo after arriving for talks with Japanese officials. Christopher R. Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon.

Christopher R. Hill says patience and perseverance needed with North Korea

North Korea Given Time to Send Data

By REUTERS

Published: January 8, 2008

TOKYO (Reuters) — North Korea’s failure to meet a deadline to declare its nuclear activities should be confronted with patience and perseverance, a senior American envoy said here on Monday.

North Korea said Friday that it had already accounted for its nuclear arms program as required under a multilateral disarmament deal, but the assertion was rejected by the United States.

“They were prepared to give a declaration which wasn’t going to be complete and correct,” said Washington’s top envoy to nuclear talks with North Korea, Christopher R. Hill, “and we felt that it was better for them to give us a complete one even if it’s going to be a late one.

“So I think we have to have a little sense of patience and perseverance,” he told reporters in Tokyo after arriving for talks with Japanese officials.

The United States and several allies have said North Korea missed a Dec. 31 deadline to submit a full inventory of its nuclear arms programs, as promised in six-party negotiations last year, and to disable its main nuclear complex at Yongbyon.

At the talks — involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia — the North agreed to abandon its nuclear program for aid and a better international standing.

“No one likes being late, but being late is probably preferable than being wrong or giving us something that we can’t work with,” said Mr. Hill, who will go to Seoul on Tuesday.

“Some of the programs are ones that they would rather not discuss publicly,” Mr. Hill said when asked why, according to the United States, the North had not made a full declaration. “And I must say this is a society and a government whose first instinct is not to be transparent.”

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