MR. SNOW: Actually, they do. And the point they've made, Helen, is that -- yes, they've made the point that, in fact, there is strength in numbers and it's more important to work with a united front. If you have a negotiation like this and somebody says, well, wait a minute, you guys stand aside and I'll talk instead, that gives the North Koreans an inducement to try to figure out ways to chip away at the partners, to break up the coalition. It's much smarter from a negotiating standpoint not to give them the option of trying to cherry-pick or to try to find ways of dividing, and instead if you have a united front that says, this is our position, it forces the North Koreans to stop trying to probe for weakness and to start dealing now with the determined effort and a united effort by the coalition. So I understand the argument, but we did try that. And what they did is they tried to isolate us. The point is not to isolate an individual partner in terms of the five parties working with the North Koreans; it's to isolate the North Koreans in such a way that they'll feel it's in their self-interest to come back to the talks.

seen at 11:51, 10 October in Whitehouse Press Briefings. Email this to a friend.
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