Has been. Within the. Interests. It is very. Specific steps. Taken place. In. His appointment to the. Thank you. Its not written. If you mr secretary. On north korea in your discussions with north korea are you satisfied with russian another country sanctions in force and then also within the past week north korea has warned of a Christmas Gift for the United States is the administration prepared to expect north korea to return to a more aggressive posture perhaps want to terminate negotiations for mr lavrov in your discussions over paul wieland are the u. S. And russia any closer to resolving that case is paul whelan any closer today to freedom and also mr foreign minister do you believe that ukraine meddled in the u. S. Election in 2016 and is that specifically something that you discussed with the secretary today thank you. Thank you. With respect to north korea. Weve worked with the russians on enforcement ive told foreign minister lavrov repeated that we appreciate the unfortunate level that they have theyve done good work these are Un Security Council resolutions these arent american sanctions per se these are all driven by the u. N. Security Council Resolutions that the russians voted for themselves theres always more work to be done on enforcement theres a. A major event on the 22nd of december where every nation is required to have all north korean workers out of their country we talked about that today and the importance there are many north korean workers that have been in russia the u. N. Security Council Resolution requires them to depart im more hopeful that they will be able to complete that come into full compliance with that. As for our expectations with respect to north koreas behavior i think present been an ambiguous about our expectation that chairman kim personally made the commitment to denuclearize. So there wouldnt be a long range missile test a nuclear test all of those are commitments that we are very hopeful that the North Koreans will continue to abide by we. We continue to work to try and develop places where we can communicate. We can talk to them about paths forward to achieve the denuclearization that both foreign minister. To help the North Koreans achieve its a place where we have. We need to jointly figure out a way together to assist the North Koreans to get there so that north korea can and the north Korean People can have the Brighter Future the president has spoken so often about. Whether the u. S. Enforcement. Security council it. Is a. Resolution does not. Include the need to. Often being lost. To cover the situation convinced that this political process to be actively supported. By a direct dialogue between the. And we promote. Only. It. And. Everything and. Security lifting the sanctions and the rest of the humanitarian Situation Requires urgent steps. Business. Conditions. Between. Hes. Officers and he. Makes all kinds of accusations and for example he says he. May be. Correct. Correct approach and. Like to repeat again we act in. Those International Norms that. In this case. The United States. Has nothing to do with us that is an issue. That. To understand the. Accusations against us that we. Prepared to do that. That important for the community. To become clear in the treaty. Extended and. What do you think about the argument that there is a need to engage. In negotiations or as its called here trying to. Stand this. Please how do you. These negotiations continue. In this period between different states and yet another question. From a different sphere. Use to give. That russian minister. Correspondence between the white house and the kremlin interference in elections as far as i understand this took place. In the fall of 2016 and the winter of 27. Well since. New start treaty id like to say that its also as i have already said in my initial remarks the. Russian president spoke again this issue of the precious preparedness right now and its a. Global Community History that the last instrument with arms control between us and the Russian Federation. And we are prepared to do that even today and. As for. China is prepared to. Join that will support such an approach and in that case well need to look at other nuclear powers. On official. China clearly that there will be. Any negotiations. Because neither on the number of the structure. With russia and the u. S. We spoke about today we looked at the statistics provided by the swedish research. Provided. In comparison with russian and the u. S. Arsenal of course. Big figures. Big difference in figures. To review. In nuclear disarmament. This situation naturally requires negotiations because there is no specific offer. And it will take some time. Yet. Take your 2nd question then ill return to. The port and conversation on our strategic strategic arms control i will publish all the documents we think appropriate we think we shared plenty of facts that show what happened in the 2016 election with our russian counterparts we dont think theres any mistake about what really transpired there. As for strategic arms control your question was about new start in particular but of course it cant be the case that that can be the sole focus thats a agreement that was entered into many years ago when powers were very different on a relative basis around the globe. It was at a time when the Weapons Systems the threats were very different than they are today to the risk to strategic instability today are different its no longer just missiles just bombers just submarines just warheads there are many other tools which can create strategic instability so we believe not only do the conversations need to be broadened to include the Chinese Communist party but they need to be broadened as well to encompass the full range of instruments of power that can create the very strategic instability that new start the i. M. F. The full range of agreements that been entered into decades ago presented to the world thats our objective its our joint objective i think we have to get it right for mr lavrov talked about the fact that china has fewer of some of those Weapons Systems today thats an accurate statement but to enter into these conversations doesnt necessarily mean that we would cap any one country at any particular level the objective isnt about that its about developing a set of conditions which create the very stability for the security of both our people the people who are not states the people of russia people all the around the world are demanding from a good Strategic Dialogue and so i hope that we can commence this i hope we can begin to move forward in a way that is constructive all the relevant parties talking about all the relevant stretched threats to strategic stability around the world and if we can do that im confident that we can make Real Progress together thank you for your question. John hudson washington post. Thank you mr secretary i understand everything you laid out about the importance of having china in those discussions would you you know if it doesnt pan out given the objections that mr lavrov pointed out that the chinese have would you be willing to go forward and in any way and maybe secure a look at securing a limited extension of new start without the chinese and on impeachment the democrats obviously unveiled their articles of impeachment which. Democrats have accused your building of. Resisting oversight efforts and taking part in abetting in the alleged quid pro quo do you have any response to that. Mr lab rob is there been any progress on establishing the u. S. Russia Business Council and as you mentioned you would like to see the u. S. Come forward with information about election battling why not just read the moeller report its very detailed when it comes to u. S. Allegations related to meddling in the 2016 election. So if i may take a 2nd question 1st congressional oversight state department is fully complied with all legal requirements we will continue to do so we had a number of officers testify weve asked every officer who moves forward who testifies under oath to do so fully completely accurately. Truthfully. And that remains the expectation that i have for both officers of the state department as well as for the things that we do to produce documents in response to appropriate congressional oversight we will continue to do that well continue to comply with every legal constitutional requirement that is presented to us to make sure that we do the right thing by the legislative branch and keep the appropriate balance between the executive and legislative bread. I think weve done that to date and i expect that we will continue to do that in the days and weeks ahead. Question was a small question when you started that more narrow question when you start would we proceed without china the answer that is simply this do we believe that there is a situation that we can get to a conclusion that we might get to just between the United States and russia that improves strategic stability that is from where we sit today can we can we move forward can we make it even more. I guess with the expiration to start even keeping at the level that we have today there is real concern as weapon systems move and advance as new countries develop these capabilities there is real risk that there is a reduction in strategic stability just staying right where we are today so that the reason that were asking for other countries to participate and for mr lavrov suggested france and the United Kingdom join is well. Happy to consider that to the missions that has to be global strategic stability and we will continue to engage in conversations with the russians and others with the aim of achieving that. Mission. We put in. Any. You need to publish. Messages that will be sent into the us how we respond. Through this. Channel. Trying to. Tackle this issue so. To discuss these each and every request and every appeal. I think. Just making to be. Published would not be able to. In any way damaged mahlers reboard or anyone from the news that will be very interesting well at least for the journalists that will be very interesting so that was my problem was and i would like to add only got to be something to watch michael bumpier said id rather he just rush. To extend the number of new starts but this event was. That of the you know the what was renamed in the middle of the show the do political c. S. Means the border. That there should be on a set of conditions not some caps not some limits for any of the members were thats for the 1st time when she has been given by an official representative of the United States and that is why i think it would be easier for us to do so and for everyone else to assess the side that idea was better formulated. Mumps is not a smooth guess and we discussed our economic operation as. We discussed the ways to enhance the quality of kabul rationed in terms of organizing certain events that is a follow up work of our president s has been doing in there and also. The places are some significant announcements about economic efforts between our 2 countries and we hope to be able to do that before too terribly long. To take up less. Often mr my name is that with of Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting company during your recent interview you said that President Trump ask you to work on improving business relations between the 2 countries and the same time as you know. The us his impulse to sanctions and number of sectors of the economy and. How are you going to improve this. Relationship according to sanctions. Also id like to ask under what conditions can. Sanctions be canceled. Mass expulsion of diplomats. It is apparent that its harder to work for. Departments of both countries and the us and. Also to official delegations. Russian. Depends thank you so much. I suppose we. Should. Only. Have the work of consular departments we talked to. Today. To give you some figures. As for us missions in the Russian Federation 155. That work relations because 155 diplomats is a number of representatives. And we were. Bringing the diplomatic bringing them to parity we decided to examine. Those diplomats. Active relations and they have no right to deal with it so we have 155. 00 diplomats less than the last has in russia. Unfortunately. Citizens. If they want to receive. 300 days in. Explain that as. To define this diplomatic mission. However. It is. Important between people. Sports and all kinds of exchanges the. Perspective. Of the questions you presented to me. Differently. I dont want to get into the numbers but we measure those numbers of whos got diplomats and a very different way