So the president set out the policy guidance and said it had to take place in a multilateral fashion so that other countries in the region could be invested in the success of this process.

Next quotes

• Mitchell Reiss:

  Sometimes we tend to focus more on the personalities and the conflicts, and it really caricatures t

• Mitchell Reiss:

  Now North Korea certainly is located in a different place geographically, but I think it faces the

• Mitchell Reiss:

  It's up to Kim Jong Il to make that decision, and we can't make that for him.

• Mitchell Reiss:

  What we can do is to explain as clearly as possible what the benefits would be of him going down on

• Mitchell Reiss:

  I'm not sure you can do anything quickly or easily with the North.

• Mitchell Reiss:

  Any agreement that you have isn't going to be based on North Korea's intentions or trust.

• Mitchell Reiss:

  So, in a sense, the verification piece is irrelevant to the format issue.

• Mitchell Reiss:

  The format's better because it gives us a much stronger hand to play when going to the North Korean

• Mitchell Reiss:

  The other countries did not share the same concern the United States had in the early '90's - that

• Mitchell Reiss:

  Again, I think we have much greater diplomatic weight by having all of us sit on the same side of t