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Skriven 2006-07-04 23:34:34 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0607041) for Tue, 2006 Jul 4
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Press Briefing on North Korea Missile Launch
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
July 4, 2006

Press Briefing on North Korea Missile Launch
Via Conference Call



6:31 P.M. EDT

MR. SNOW: Hello, everybody. What I'm going to do is just senior
administration official attribution. I will lay out what we have, and I
think my colleague will join us, too -- he is speaking with the President
right now, and if he becomes available.

All right. Here is what we have. I've just done a similar briefing in the
press room, attribution, senior administration official. We can talk about
that if you have other concerns a little bit later.

(Note: it was later decided that this would be an on the record briefing by
Mr. Snow and Mr. Hadley, attributable to them.)

Here's what we have. We have three launches today by North Korea. One
occurring at 2:33 p.m. eastern time, the second one at approximately 3:04
p.m. eastern time, a third one at approximately 4:01 p.m. eastern time. The
first two were either short or medium range ballistic missiles; don't want
to get too specific because we haven't nailed it down yet. Both landed
short of Japan. The third was a Taepodong-2 that vanished shortly after
launch, less than a minute after launch. That was a failed launch of the
Taepodong-2.

The first two took place at Kittaeryong. The first two from Kittaeryong,
the third from the Taepodong test site.

The President was notified in all three cases. He has spoken with the
Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State and the National Security
Advisor.

Q This is Anita from Fox, we got disconnected somehow at the very top. Can
you start from the beginning again?

MR. SNOW: Okay, I'll run through it again. Who all do we have here, by the
way? Well, never mind, I don't want to do that because that will take too
long.

There were three launches today out of North Korea. The first two were from
the Kittaeryong.

MS. PERINO: You might mention to her that you wanted to do this as a senior
administration official.

MR. SNOW: Yes, we're doing this as senior administration official.

From Kittaeryong -- a short or medium-range ballistic missiles. These are
not unusual sorts of firings. Both of them -- the first one occurred at
2:33 p.m. eastern time, the second at 3:04 p.m. eastern time, the third at
-- those were both at Kittaeryong. The third launch took place from the
Taepodong test site, that occurred at 4:01 p.m. eastern time. That was a
failed launch; it failed less than a minute into flight.

The President was notified in all three cases. He has spoken with the
National Secretary of Advisor, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary
of State. There have also been diplomatic contacts between the United
States -- we've spoken with the Chinese, the South Korean and the Japanese
government. Chris Hill, of the Department of State, will be heading to the
region tomorrow. He's preparing, at least, to leave for the region
tomorrow. And, also, Steve Hadley will be meeting with the South Korean
National Security Advisor, his South Korean counterpart, who is in town.
That meeting was pre-scheduled. But they obviously will continue their
consultations, as well.

In doing this, the North Koreans have once again isolated themselves. They
have defied their neighbors who urged them not to have a launch. The South
Koreans, the Japanese and the Chinese all have asked them not to do it. The
United States now will work with the other parties in the six-party talks
to figure out the appropriate way to move forward. But I think it's fair to
say that this is a further indication of isolation on the part of the North
Koreans. And it also reminds everybody about the nature of the regime. So
that is kind of where we're going.

Any questions?

Q What does Chris Hill going to the region to do? Who is he going to meet
with? And what's the purpose?

MR. SNOW: I am going to wait -- the State Department announced Chris's
itinerary and I think that's probably the appropriate thing to do. So I
direct those questions to Sean McCormack. The other thing is we will be
trying to get a statement out, but I'm not going to be foolish enough to
guarantee you a time. We'll get it ready as soon as possible, but I don't
even know if we'll have one tonight. But we will be producing an official
statement.

Q When you say that the short and medium launches were not unusual sorts of
firing, is it your view that they do or not violate the missile launch
moratorium?

MR. SNOW: I am not going to -- you know what, that is a question for my
colleague to answer, when we get him on the line.

Q There were reports that there was a fourth missile fired, are you --

MR. SNOW: We have no confirmation of that. We have heard there has been a
single press report of that, but we know nothing about it.

Q Can you repeat that? What was the question?

MR. SNOW: Out of the region there was a report of a fourth launch. We are
not aware of a fourth launch, and we have no word that it's a launch at
this point. Obviously if we get data on that, we'll share it with you as
rapidly as possible. But we cannot confirm a fourth launch. We can confirm
the three that I've mentioned to you.

Q Do you think that the North Koreans were trying to send a particular
message to the United States by doing this on the 4th of July, our national
--

MR. SNOW: I'd rather not try to read the mind of a leader, nor do any of us
want to read the mind of a leader in the non-transparent society. It's
clear that whatever the motivation, the result is pretty obvious, which is
that the North Koreans have isolated themselves and --

(Interruption to call.)

MR. SNOW: All right, we have two additional pieces of information. We
actually do have confirmations now of a fourth and fifth launch.

Q Fifth, did you say, Tony?

MR. SNOW: Two more launches. A fourth launch that occurred at 6:12 p.m.,
into the exclusion zone, landed at 6:17 p.m. A second one -- both of them
landed in the Sea of Japan. That was a Scud, we think. The second was a
Nodong, landed in the Sea of Japan.

Olivier, in answer to your question --

Q Excuse me --

MR. SNOW: I'm sorry, what?

Q What time was the fifth launch?

MR. SNOW: Steve Hadley is going to join us in a minute. He just gave me
that information; I'll let him give you the information on the second one,
because I don't have it.

Q So confirmation of a fourth?

MR. SNOW: And a fifth.

Q And the fourth was at 6:12 p.m.

MR. SNOW: Yes, 6:12 p.m., eastern time, landed five minutes later.

Q In the Sea of Japan?

MR. SNOW: In the Sea of Japan. The fifth was a -- that was a Scud, the
fifth was a Nodong.

Q How do you spell that?

MR. SNOW: N-o-d-o-n-g.

Q Okay.

MR. SNOW: Also landed in the Sea of Japan.

Olivier, in answer to your question, we do consider these violations of the
moratorium.

Q All of them?

MR. SNOW: Yes. You can double-check with Steve, but I think so. But I will
let him -- because honestly, I'm not as conversant with the technical
aspect, so I'll let Steve fill you in.

Certainly, the Taepodong -- and I'll give the answer on the rest. I'm
sorry, go ahead, folks.

Q Tony, can you just confirm, did all five fall in the Sea of Japan?

MR. SNOW: Yes.

Q All in Sea of Japan?

Q All five of them?

MR. SNOW: That is correct.

OPERATOR: Mr. Hadley is on the phone.

MR. SNOW: Steve, did all five fall in the Sea of Japan?

MR. HADLEY: I have one piece of news. There has been a sixth.* The fifth
missile was a Nodong, it hit the Sea of Japan. It was launched at 6:31
p.m., eastern daylight time, impact at 6:36 p.m. There has been a sixth
launch. This is also from a Nodong, also from the Kittaeryong facility. We
don't have an impact location or time at this point.

Q The Nodong is a medium-range missile?

MR. HADLEY: Yes, we would consider them that; that's exactly right. They're
on the short range of the medium range, but we would consider them
medium-range missiles, that is true.

They have a couple more Scud/Nodongs probably ready. They may be launching
those, as well, so we may be not yet through this cycle.

Q I'm sorry, what was that, Steve? I apologize.

MR. HADLEY: I said there are another couple Scuds or Nodongs that we think
are in preparation, so there may be a couple more for all we know, before
the night is out.

Q So we have a fourth in the Sea of Japan, we have the fifth in the Sea of
Japan, and we have the sixth?

MR. HADLEY: Undetermined at this point. It was just launched at 6:32 p.m.
They're still trying to get a fix on it.

Q And the President has been notified of all of these launches now?

MR. HADLEY: I just called him and notified the fifth -- I was notified of
the sixth just as I was coming into this call. As soon as I get out of this
call, I will let him know.

Q The fourth was at 6:12 p.m., the fifth was what time?

MR. HADLEY: The fifth one is at 6:31 p.m., eastern daylight time.

Q And it impacted at 6:36 p.m.?

MR. HADLEY: At 6:36 p.m. That's our current information. But this is
information is all, you know, kind of hot off the wire, so I'm sure it will
be adjusted a little bit.

Q Okay. And the fourth was a Scud, the second -- the fifth was a Nodong?

MR. HADLEY: The fifth was a Nodong, and the sixth was a Nodong.

Q And the fourth?

MR. SNOW: A Scud.

MR. HADLEY: The fourth was a Scud.

Q What range missile is a Scud considered?

MR. HADLEY: It's probably -- it's a short-range ballistic missile. These
went out about 275 miles, something like that.

Q Which ones, the first ones?

Q And is the Taepong [sic] -- I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with these terms
--

MR. HADLEY: That's okay. It's the Taepodong-2.

Q Is that considered a long-range missile?

MR. HADLEY: Yes, it is considered an intercontinental range missile. It is.

Q And that was a failed launch, you said. So what have you learned from all
of this?

MR. HADLEY: Well, it think what we've learned is something about
capabilities, the fact that they can fire Scuds and Nodongs is not a
surprise. The Taepodong obviously was a failure -- that tells you something
about capabilities.

What we really don't have a fix on is, you know, what's the intention of
all this, what is the purpose of all this? Because this is clearly
something that's in violation, we would say, in violation of the moratorium
on missile tests. Certainly, the TD-2, the Taepodong-2 is. This is
something the entire international community was aware they were preparing
to do, urged them not to do -- and they have basically defied the
international community and gone ahead and done it anyway. It's hard to get
a sense on what they think is to be achieved by this.

Q And what was the President's reaction when you told him of this?

MR. HADLEY: This is something we've been seeing coming for a while, so it's
not a particular surprise. We've had fairly active diplomacy, as you know,
getting people to -- sharing information, getting people in their diplomacy
to urge common action -- urge a common message to North Korea that this is
a bad thing to do, and talk about the fact that if they took this action,
the international community would have to meet and decide on what kind of
actions would occur.

So, you know, we've been doing a lot of preparations for this, and the
President, I think -- so it wasn't that he was surprised, because we've
seen this coming for a while. I think his instinct is that this just shows
the defiance of the international community by North Korea. This is not a
U.S.-North Korea issue; they were receiving messages from the entire
international community on this subject and chose to ignore them.

It shows you a little bit, therefore, about this regime and the nature of
its diplomacy. And I think it underscores the importance for the
international community to stay together, send a common message and decide
where we go next. Obviously, where we'd like to go is back to the six-party
talks and implementing that September '05 agreement, where North Korea
gives up its nuclear programs.

Q Steve, when you -- we heard earlier this is no immediate threat to the
United States. But what has been the reaction from Japan? And is it seen as
a threat there?

MR. HADLEY: Well, look, one of the things we've got to do is analyze each
of these launches, certainly analyze the Taepodong-2 launch and see what it
tells us about what the North Koreans had in mind.

Obviously, Japan, if you read the press and the like, Japan was very
concerned about these launches. As you may remember, the Taepodong-1 launch
in, I think, 1998, over-flew Japan and that was a source of great concern
to the Japanese and it's one of the things that got them more interested in
missile defense. So the fact that a number of these are coming down in the
Sea of Japan, even though, admittedly, hundreds of miles away from Japan,
is troubling. And they made it very clear in the run-up that this was
troubling and indicated that they hoped North Korea would not do this and,
if North Korea did, that there ought to be diplomatic consequences.

So I think the Japanese are going to be concerned about it and will
probably have some ideas about what the international community ought to do
by way of response.

Q Can you say whether you guys are looking to go to the Security Council --

MR. HADLEY: Look, there are a number of options on the diplomacy. One of
the things that we are already having lower-level consultations with key
allies, particularly those who are with us in the six-party talks.
Secretary Rice is going to begin making some calls later this evening. Asia
is just waking up, in terms of the Chinese and Japanese and the South
Koreans. My South Korean counterpart will be here tomorrow. This will be an
interesting subject for that agenda.

There has been discussion, as you know already, that if North Korea went
forward it would be appropriate for the Security Council to consider this
issue. That will be one of the things that Secretary Rice will be talking
to her counterparts about.

So I think you're going to see a lot of diplomatic activity here over the
next 24-48 hours.

Q Steve, one more thing. Is this somehow, do you believe, an effort by
North Korea to try to take the spotlight off of Iran? And does it affect
your diplomatic movements with Iran and all the things that are happening
with that?

MR. HADLEY: It's hard to know. As I say, it's very difficult to know what
the North Koreans think they are doing this for. Obviously, it is a bit of
an effort to get attention, perhaps because so much attention has been
focused on the Iranians.

The thing I think we hope to show is that in both cases, Iran and North
Korea, even though the constellation of players may be a little different,
the international solidarity is the same and the message that we do not
want a nuclear North Korea or a nuclear weapon-armed Iran, that message is
the same message, and that the international community is unified in
sending that message. So that's what we hope is the lesson that both
Iranians and North Koreans will draw from this.

Q Steve, this is Deb from AP.

MR. HADLEY: Hi, Deb.

Q We've got all these senior administration official people talking here.
Is there any reason why you can't be on the record, you're the National
Security Advisor.

MR. HADLEY: Tony?

MR. SNOW: No, it's fine.

Q Great.

Q Does that change --

Q Mr. Hadley --

Q So are you okay on the record?

MR. HADLEY: About five people spoke at the same time. If there was a
question or something we needed to clarify -- Tony, what is the process
here. We will do a transcript of this?

MS. PERINO: Yes, we have a steno on.

MR. HADLEY: We've gone from senior administration official, on the record,
let us just take a quick look. But, Tony, I didn't hear -- (inaudible) --
anything I was concerned about.

MR. SNOW: No. Dana.

MS. PERINO: Well, Tony, I think you need to make a decision. You started
off as a senior administration official; I don't know if you want to change
that.

Q I think we can let Snow be as a senior administration official, but this
is a serious, diplomatic issue --

MR. SNOW: Yes, I think that's fine.

MR. HADLEY: Let's do that.

Q -- senior person to quote here. And, Steve, you are the National Security
Advisor.

MR. SNOW: Deb, you've already won; you don't have to explain further.

Q Can I raise an issue here? Tony, since you were the one who gave us sort
of the initial, there were five launches today or, you know, gave us all
the timing, can we please simply attribute that to Mr. Hadley, if it's a
time -- we can run through them again?

MR. SNOW: Steve, is that fine with you? Do you want to run through the
times again.

MR. HADLEY: I can run through what I've got, Tony.

MR. SNOW: Okay. I'll run through what we have --

Q Just so we don't a senior administration official --

MR. SNOW: That's fine. That makes perfect sense.

Okay, launch number one from Kittaeryong, a Scud, launched at 2:33 p.m.,
eastern time.

Q When you say "Scud," you mean short-range?

MR. HADLEY: It's what's called a Scud-C, as in Charlie, and that would be a
short-range ballistic missile, or an SRBM.

MR. SNOW: Launch number two occurring at 3:04 p.m. eastern time, Nodong.

MR. HADLEY: It's a Nodong or a Scud-C. I think we haven't confirmed which
it is, so we're still working that one.

MR. SNOW: All right. That was also from Kittaeryong. And number three was
the Taepodong-2 at 4:01 p.m. from the Taepodong test facility. And I think
you've got the other three. And you may attribute all of those to Steve.

Q Great. And can I get a clarification. Steve, can I get you to say again
about the moratorium, specifics about how you consider that violations --
anything more on that?

MR. HADLEY: We'll get you the -- the moratorium was something that they
adopted in the wake of the outcry associated and that followed the
Taepodong-1 launch. And they basically said that they would not do any
further testing, I think it was of the medium and long-range ballistic
missiles. We will get clarification on that, on the exact terms of the
moratorium. Clearly, the TD-2, the Taepodong-2 launch would be in violation
of the moratorium. And this was a moratorium that they adopted I think in
1999 and reaffirmed in 2004.

We also think that the September 2005 agreement that was reached in the
six-party talks committed all the parties to the security and enhancing the
security of Northeast Asia and, of course, we think that this kind of
activity does not enhance the security of Northeast Asia and therefore is
inconsistent with at least the spirit and maybe even the letter of the
September 2005 agreement.

Q Tony, there was one more thing. We've got you as quoted as saying, "it is
a provocation" and that "there is not an immediate threat to the United
States."

MR. SNOW: Yes.

Q Are we okay with that one?

MR. SNOW: We're okay with that one.

Q We're okay with you saying --

Q Can we have Hadley say the same thing or --

MS. PERINO: Tony, can I make a recommendation, because we are getting too
messy. I would suggest that --

MR. SNOW: Everything on the record?

MS. PERINO: -- the whole briefing is on the record.

MR. SNOW: Okay. Let's just clarify, everything is on the record and you can
go from there. My apologies to everybody.

Q You and him?

Q Tony -- about the provocation, but not a threat -- how would you put
that?

MR. SNOW: Steve, still here?

MR. HADLEY: What I would say is, look, we have said that this was -- we
have been concerned about this as provocative behavior. We've said that,
particularly in defiance of the message, the unified message, really, of
the international community. So we do consider it provocative behavior.

We're obviously continuing to examine what the profiles and what we know
about these launches tells us, particularly about the Taepodong-2 launch,
what it tells us about the intentions of the North Koreans. Obviously, you
know, a missile that fails after 40 seconds is not a threat to the
territory of the United States. But what we want to do, of course, is
analyze what we can know about that missile and what it tells us about the
intent of the North Koreans. And we're just going to have to do our
homework, do an analysis and see what we can divine about what they had in
mind.

Tony, are you comfortable with that?

MR. SNOW: I'm comfortable. Yes, we're on the same page.

Okay, guys, are we good to go?

Q I have one question -- I'm sorry to interrupt. The quote, Tony, that you
gave earlier about provocative behavior? I'm --

MR. HADLEY: Can we consider it amended by my quote?

Q Okay, that's fine.

MR. SNOW: I had given both of those points in a separate quote, but I am
happy to defer to the National Security Advisor, who has more weight on
such matters anyway.

Q Okay. I didn't see it in my notes, so we'll just use Steve's.

MR. SNOW: The earlier quote was given down in the press room; it was not
part of this conversation.

Q Okay. And following this report, we'll all get a transcript eventually
anyway?

MR. SNOW: Correct, we'll get it out to everybody.

All right. Have a happy 4th, everybody.

END 6:59 P.M. EDT

* The sixth launch has not been confirmed.

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