If the Bush administration really is trying to get China to put more pressure on North Korea, Hu and Bush’s press appearance today suggests that the effort isn’t going all that well:
PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. President, thank you for this very frank exchange. I told the President that I look forward to working with him over the next four years to continue our close work on keeping peace, peace on the Korean Peninsula and peace throughout the Pacific region, and to spread peace throughout the world. And I’m looking forward to working with him on those matters
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PRESIDENT HU (on North Korea): We also discussed the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula. Both sides expressed the hope that the issue can be solved peacefully through dialogue.
That’s all they said. Hopefully progress is being made by somebody else, somewhere else. Hopefully.