UPDATE - 1:46 P.M. - Transcript portions are now included at the bottom.
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The White House this morning said their requirements for a full declaration from North Korea on nuclear weapon activities no longer includes proliferation activities, one day before President Bush meets with the South Korean president at Camp David.
The regime in Pyongyang will have to fully disclose a list of all "facilities that produced the nuclear weapons," said Dennis Wilder, the top White House official on East Asia, in a briefing with reporters this morning.
Since North Korea signed an agreement late last year agreeing to declare all its nuclear activities, the White House has said that those activities included proliferation — or the transfer of nuclear materials or knowledge about uranium enrichment — to other countries.
North Korea is suspected of helping Syria build a nuclear facility for the purpose of building a weapon, and Israel's top-secret aerial bombing raid into Syria last year is thought to have been aimed at this facility.
But this morning, Mr. Wilder said that proliferation is "being handled in a different manner" than the main declaration, which led him to pronounce himself optimistic about a full declaration.
"We have every indication that the North will comply with its obligations," Mr. Wilder said.
But he insisted that "no one has let them off the hook with that declaration" and that nuclear weapons production and proliferation have not been "decoupled."
"These two things will stand together. They are part and parcel of the same process. How we've gotten there are two different methods of negotiating with the North Koreans," Mr. Wilder said.
There is a transcript coming later and we'll paste the entire relevant portions.
John Bolton, the administration's former top proliferation official at the State Department, said the administration is "obviously in full retreat."
"The real question is whether they're going to give North Korea what it wants, which is to be taken off the terrorism list, before they have verification," Mr. Bolton said.
Mr. Bolton said he believes the State Department views proliferation as a non-issue and wanted to take Pyongyang off the state sponsors of terrorism list before South Korean President Lee Myung-bak arrived yesterday in New York.
"I think it'll happen in a few weeks, and it will be a disgrace," Mr. Bolton said. "They think the plutonium issue is the only one that matters, and it's a potentially fatal mistake."
On trade, Mr. Wilder said that despite Democrats' blocking of a free trade agreement with Colombia last week, the White House remains optimistic about negotiations with the South Koreans on allowing more U.S. beef imports, and about congressional approval of a free trade agreement with Seoul.
Mr. Wilder said the Bush administration is "extremely hopeful" that a deal on beef can be reached soon, but did not say whether a deal would be made by the time that Mr. Bush and Mr. Lee meet and hold a joint press conference at Camp David on Saturday.
Mr. Wilder also said that there is growing concern in Asia over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's actions last week to block the Colombia FTA by changing the rules requiring a vote within 60 days of the deal being submitted by the president to Congress.
"I have had many East Asian diplomats come to me concerned about a growing protectionism in the United States, and concerned that Americans are turning their backs on what has been a cornerstone of our relationships in East Asia," Mr. Wilder said.
He said it is "very important for Congress to think through [the South Korean FTA] clearly."
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Here are the relevant transcript portions:
MR. WILDER: Disablement at Yongbyon is continuing under U.S. supervision, and we are sending an experts group back to Pyongyang next week to see if we can make progress on the declaration that the North Koreans are obligated to provide under the February 2007 agreement.
Q Do you think that North Korea has any intention of honoring its promise to make a complete and correct declaration?
MR. WILDER: I think the North Koreans signed the agreement last year in good faith. And I think that we have every indication that the North will comply with its obligations.
We, as the Secretary, I think, said just a few minutes ago, though, are going to have a verification mechanism. We are not going to just simply accept the North Korean declaration without ways in which to make sure that the North Koreans live up to their obligations. And that is part of the process we're going through as we complete the Phase Two part of this effort.
So we will trust but verify, and that will --
Q How will you do that?
MR. WILDER: I think I will leave it to a later date to explain that. We are working with the Chinese on this, we are working with the other six-party members on this, and we're not prepared yet to talk about the details.
Q But presumably it would involve the cooperation of the North Koreans.
MR. WILDER: Absolutely. And part of what that team will do next week in North Korea is discuss this.
....Q Dennis, on the declaration. The media reports out of the region are now that the understanding with the United States and North Korea is that there won't be a declaration; there's going to be something called an acknowledgment, where the United States lists what it has concerns about, and North Korea will acknowledge those concerns. It's not even going to be made public. Is this expert commission next week, is this the last attempt at a formal declaration by North Korea before you shift to this acknowledgment?
MR. WILDER: I think we're conflating two different issues here. As part of the February 2007 agreement, the North is committed to providing a complete and correct declaration related to their nuclear program. No one has let them off the hook on that declaration. That declaration is and remains a crucial part of getting beyond Phase Two to Phase Three.
What you are talking about is side negotiations that the United States has had with the North Koreans. That's a different matter because that involves different kinds of activities, such as proliferation, and that is being handled in a different manner. But the North and all members of the six-party talks expect this has to come up with a list of the facilities that produced the nuclear weapons. That includes Yongbyon but it includes a lot of other facilities from the iron-ore enrichment all the way to the nuclear test sites. And that is a declaration; that is what we expect to see in the declaration: the plutonium cycle that led to nuclear weapons.
Q I'm obviously not as close to this as you are, but for months and months and months from that podium, various spokespeople have said that the North has to come up with a full declaration, including its proliferation activities. You seem to be decoupling that now, saying that there's a side negotiation with the United States on proliferation, and a declaration about the list of the facilities used in the production of nuclear weapons. Is that right?
MR. WILDER: It isn't decoupled. These two things will stand together. They are part and parcel of the same process. How we have gotten there are two different methods of negotiating with the North Koreans.
— Jon Ward, White House correspondent, The Washington Times
