News Briefing: Deputy Spokesman Richard Boucher briefed. Following is an unofficial transcript of East Asia/Pacific excerpts: (begin unofficial transcript)
Q. There is a kind of the neither-confirm-nor-deny policy regarding the North Korean ship?
BOUCHER: No, there is not. I mean, we have expressed ourselves before on our concern about the transfer of missiles to the Middle East. We're expressed our concerns about the -- well, the great concern that we would have on the transfer of missiles by North Korea in this case. We've said that very clearly from here, and we said it again in an answer that we put up last Friday. But as far as the specifics of a particular vessel and the specifics of courses of action that we might take and what the possibilities are, that's just not something I can get into.
Q: Did the U.S. government try in any way to convince the North Koreans to join the arms suppliers in their agreement not to send missiles or arms to the area?
BOUCHER: You mean, the Missile Technology Control Regime or the arms control initiative to the Middle East? I guess I would just say in general that we have stated both publicly and privately our concerns about missile transfers to this region, our concerns about possible North Korean missile transfers. We have encouraged all countries to act prudently and to abide by international understandings on this subject. And we have said that we would view with great concern any transfer of this type. We've also said that we're particularly opposed to the proliferation of surface-to-surface missiles to the Middle East. So, those views are well-known to the North Korean government, I'm sure.
(end unofficial transcript)