U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Daily Press Briefing
DPB # 71
Thursday, May 24, 2001  1:05 P.M.
(On The Record Unless Otherwise Noted)

QUESTION:  There was a story in the Korean press that the US is going to
present to the countries of Japan and South Korea who they will meet
with - the US will meet with tomorrow and this weekend - the
possibility of changing the Agreed Framework, you know, that the US and
North Korea --

MR. REEKER:  I had at look at the story I think to which you are
referring, and I don't believe it was really quite that definitive.  As
we have said about the Agreed Framework - and I believe Ambassador
Boucher mentioned it again just a couple days ago - we will abide by
our commitments under the Agreed Framework and we expect the North
Koreans to do the same.
As you know, our policy review on North Korea is continuing and no final
decisions have been made on that.  We are open to considering ways to
improve the Agreed Framework to advance our goals, but I don't have
anything certainly to announce in that regard as we conduct our review
in a thorough manner and anticipate completing that.
As you mention and as we previously announced, there will be a meeting
this weekend - Saturday, to be exact - in Honolulu, Hawaii, of the
Trilateral Coordination and Oversight Group.  We will have a US
delegation meeting with delegations from Japan and the Republic of
Korea.  Our Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific
Affairs James Kelly has departed today to Hawaii to lead our delegation
for that.
And as we also mentioned when we announced that meeting, we will have
before the meeting bilateral US-Korea and US-Japan meetings, and I
believe Korea and Japan will have a bilateral meeting as well on the
25th and 26th of May.
QUESTION:  But the article doesn't say that the US portion of the
agreement would change, which is to provide the oil.  The agreement says
that the US would seek to change the type of plant that would be
provided to North Korea from a light-water reactor plant to a steam--
basically a steam plant.
MR. REEKER:  Right.  As I said, we expect fully to abide by our
commitments under the Agreed Framework, and again we expect North Korea
to abide by their commitments as well.  So while we continue our review
of North Korea policy, we will continue to look at these issues.
One key goal, as you know, has been to bring about a complete and
verifiable end to North Korea's nuclear program, and we are open to
considering ways to improve the Agreed Framework to advance our goals in
that regard.  But I certainly don't have anything to announce at this
point.
QUESTION:  You say you want to improve the agreement.  What's wrong with
it?
MR. REEKER:  What I said, George, was we are open to considering ways to
improve the Agreed Framework.  I didn't say there was anything wrong
with it.
QUESTION:  Can I just follow up on that?  Building light-water nuclear
reactors specifically, is that considered part of the commitments from
the US side?
MR. REEKER:  I just don't have details to go back into.  I can pull out
all the stuff from the Agreed Framework, if you want, again.  I mean, we
have been over this many times.  It is well known to everybody.
QUESTION:  There are some --
MR. REEKER:  We have a North Korea policy review which is ongoing, so
clearly I don't have anything to announce from that.  Let me repeat once
again, we will abide by our commitments under the Agreed Framework and
we expect the North Koreans to do the same.  And obviously we will be
discussing all these issues with our allies at the so-called TCOG
meeting in Hawaii this weekend.
QUESTION:  Can you say whether the US delegation is taking - what parts
of - you know, parts of this revision of policy that is being
considered to share with our --
MR. REEKER:  I can't say.  We will leave that to share with our allies,
which we do first before we share it with you.