お約束の「エネルギー支援参加」を麻生外相が口にしたぞ

　時事通信のサイトにこんな記事がありました。
拉致問題認めるだけでも「進展」＝エネ支援参加は北朝鮮次第－麻生外相

　内容は至ってわかりやすい内容で、今日の外務委員会で麻生外相が『北朝鮮による拉致問題の「進展」の定義について、「北朝鮮は『（拉致問題は）解決済みで問題はない』と言っている。『ない』から『ある』に変わるだけでも進展だ」』と述べたという話ですが、なんでこの記事に行き着いたのかは、勿論、北朝鮮がBDAの金を動かし始めたという報道（N. Korea: Funds Dispute Nearly Solved）が流れたからです。

外相はこうも言いながらも、日本がエネルギー支援に加わるかどうかは北朝鮮の出方を見極めた上で判断するとの見解を併せて示したということのようですが、つい先週までは強硬論を吐きまくっていた麻生太郎がいきなりこうでは情けなくて涙がでます。

　なんでこういう転身が発生したかは昨日引用した１４日の国務省の定例ブリーフィングDaily Press Briefingの中の記者の質問にある But President Bush reassured Prime Minister Abe today in a phone call that it would indeed be considered whether -- in deciding whether to remove North Korea from the list.にある安倍総理とブッシュの電話会談がポイントなんでしょうね。
ただ、内容に関してはケーシーは副報道官は一切言及してませんから憶測を重ねることはよします。

　そこで昨日のホワイトハウスと国務省がどうであったかということをあたってみましたが、先ず１５日のホワイトハウス定例ブリーフィングに以下のやりとりがあります。

Q Tony, on North Korea, North Korea insists to have a North Korean fund with a BDA, be transferred only through the United States banking system, which is also subject to the (inaudible) by President Bush. What is your comment?
－
MR. SNOW:And they want it and therefore -- look, we think the North Koreans need to abide by the obligations of the February 13th accord, and we continue to believe that. Obviously, they're having some difficulty getting a hold of the BDA money;can't really comment on that. But their obligations are pretty clear under the accord.

Q Did this (inaudible) approval by the President of the United States?

MR. SNOW:The President of the United States doesn't have approval over bank transfers.

質問者の質問が聞き取りにくいようでナニですが、おそらく、ＢＤＡ資金をアメリカ系の金融機関を通じて処理することをブッシュが承認したのかっと言うことなんでしょうが、これに対してスノウ報道官は「していない」と答えています、あくまでもこれは５月１５日迄の段階の話ですが。

そして国務省の１５日の定時ブリーフィングには以下のやりとりがあります。

QUESTION: On North Korea --

MR. CASEY: Your daily question --（註：これは指名された質問者Mioが毎回北朝鮮問題を質問しているから）

QUESTION: My daily question on BDA.

MR. CASEY: Okay.

QUESTION: Given that it's been a month since the April 14th deadline and initially you were saying that you would give it days and that your time was not infinite, your patience wasn't infinite.What have you heard from the North Koreans besides the fact that they intend to meet their February 13th obligations, about how they're actively working to resolve the BDA issue?

MR. CASEY: Well, again, I'll leave it to the North Koreans to talk about how they're working with their bankers to resolve this.The fact of the matter is that this is a process that's taken far longer than everyone would have wanted or hoped.　We certainly want to see the North Koreans finalize this financial transaction as soon as is possible.　And we definitely want to put this behind us and get back to what's the real work of the six-party talks, which is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.　It is positive that the North Koreans continue to reaffirm their commitment to carrying out the obligations under the February 13th agreement, but the fact of the matter is they haven't completed them yet and we need to see the BDA funds get transferred and then see them act very quickly to move forward on meeting those commitments.

QUESTION: But when you say the time was not infinite before, are there any kind of punishments for North Korea if they don't move quickly on this?

MR. CASEY: Well, I think the thing for people to remember is that North Korea wants to have a very different kind of relationship with the international community and with the other members of the six-party talks. If they hope to gain any of the benefits from that process, then they have to honor their obligations. They're certainly still under UN Security Council sanctions. They haven't gotten any of the benefits, including fuel oil and other measures that were envisioned in response to them taking positive actions on their nuclear program. And of course, they certainly haven't moved forward in terms of the other issues that they would like to see resolved in their relationship with the United States or Japan or any of the other countries in the six-party process. So there's obviously a cost to them in not complying with this, but again, I think our focus is seeing them resolve the financial transactions related to BDA as soon as possible so that we can move forward on this. We need to be in a position where we don't lose too much of the momentum that we gained back in February.
Anne.

QUESTION: Do you think there remains an actual technical financial block or impediment of some sort to the removal of the funds? Or is North Korea using the fact that it hasn't withdrawn the funds or its account holders haven't withdrawn the funds for leverage or for some other purpose?

MR. CASEY: Well, look, this has been a extremely complicated technical banking issue. It's one that I think has taken longer to resolve and had more complications in it than I think anyone assumed at the outset. So I do think at this point, there are still some technical issues that they're trying to resolve with their bankers and that's something that we do need to see move forward quickly, but I don't see anything that indicates at this point that they are not trying to work through those issues and make the transfer.

QUESTION: What do you see that gives you confidence that they are trying to work through it?

MR. CASEY: Well, again, I think there have been any number of conversations and communications that they've been having with banking officials in Macau and elsewhere. As far as I understand it, our belief is that they are, in fact, trying to make this move forward. It's just that again; it's had some technical complications that probably weren't anticipated at the beginning of the process.

　回答者は昨日と同じくケーシー副報道官ですが、この人はマコーマックに比べて長広舌なわりにかんじんのことをなにも言わない。
　最初の質問者はMioと呼ばれてますからおそらく日本人ですが、Anneと呼ばれた記者の方が鋭い質問を放ってまして「北朝鮮がちゃんと行動しているって確信がなんで得られるんだ？」と聞いてます、そしてそれにケーシーは「北朝鮮とマカオの金融当局やほかのどこかとの間に多くの交渉や情報交換があったと思われるからだ。」と答えています。
昨日と全く同じようなことしか言っていませんね。
そして、全体を通じて、マカオの金がどうなったのこうなったのって話は出てきていないまま、とにかく、６カ国協議のプロセスを前進させることに意味があるの一点張りです。

　あと目についたのが１６日付のAPのHill: NKorea Nuke Dispute Will Be Solvedという記事ですが、その中にこんな行がありました。
ただし、ヒルがこれを語ったのは１５日です。

May 16, 12:51 AM EDT
NEW YORK (AP) -- The chief U.S. negotiator at North Korean nuclear talks said Tuesday the financial dispute over Pyongyang's $25 million in a Macau bank will be resolved. "I can assure you ... we are not going to allow $25 million or even $26 million to get between us and a deal that will finally do something about nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said. "We are going after this problem until we solve this problem." Hill appealed to hundreds of guests at the 50th anniversary dinner of The Korea Society for "a little patience," but also "a little impatience, because we really do need to pick up the pace and we will."

　なにぶんにも時差の関係があるので、今日のところは具体的にナニがどうなっているのかがわかる記事は見つかりませんでしたが、明日になればロイターあたりにも記事が出てくるんでしょう。

　しかしこれだけは言えるのは、安倍政権は取り舵いっぱいだってことですわ。
なんで端からこうなると分かりきっていたものが今頃かといえば、国民投票法が国会通過するまで待った、そしてこの時期迄に通すために民主党に対して妥協に妥協を重ねた、だからやったやったと言う割に｢はぁ！？｣という内容ですわ。
しかし、それもなしでこれが出たら安倍政権はKOでしょう。
言ってみれば出来の悪いペテンですよ。

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