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February 01, 2007
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| U.S. and North Korean officials met in Beijing for a second day to address the dispute over what Washington calls “illicit financial activities” by Pyongyang. No breakthrough was hinted at yesterday. In Washington, a senior U.S. intelligence officer called the U.S. financial pressure on North Korea effective in persuading it to give up its nuclear arms programs. Daniel Glaser, a U.S. deputy assistant treasury secretary, met first on Tuesday with a North Korean delegation and resumed the talks yesterday at the North Korean Embassy in the Chinese capital. After the Tuesday meeting, Mr. Glaser told reporters that two U.S. experts on counterfeit banknotes were in his delegation and had presented what Washington believes is evidence of North Korean culpability in counterfeiting. After the United States accused North Korea of money laundering and forgery of $100 bills, Banco Delta Asia in Macao froze $24 million in North Korean assets there. The financial dispute further paralyzed the already moribund nuclear disarmament talks. Mr. Glaser also said Tuesday that U.S. investigators had reviewed voluminous documentation from the bank since warning it in September 2005 that it could face a ban on dealings with U.S. banks or through U.S. banking networks. “Everything that we’ve seen through these documents has confirmed what we’ve been saying ― that there’s really been a lot of troubling activity going on at that bank,” he said. A source with close ties to the North Korean government reportedly told the Reuters news service yesterday that if the United States did not end its financial pressure on North Korea, Pyongyang would announce at the six-party talks that it would conduct another nuclear test. Reuters did not identify the source, but said he spoke after being briefed by North Korean officials on the financial negotiations. In Washington, John Negroponte told senators Tuesday that the financial sanctions could help end the North’s nuclear brinksmanship. Mr. Negroponte, the former senior intelligence official in the U.S. government, was speaking at a confirmation hearing for a new job as the No. 2 State Department official. The six-way nuclear talks will resume on Feb. 8 in Beijing. By Ser Myo-ja Staff Writer [myoja@joongang.co.kr] |
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