Print

Mail

wiki links

US to sustain N Korea sanctions

The US said yesterday it would maintain economic sanctions against North Korea and warned the Stalinist state to return to six-party talks or risk losing "a very good deal."

North Korea has boycotted the nuclear disarmament talks for five months and insists it will return only when the US lifts sanctions imposed in September for alleged money-laundering.

US envoy on North Korea Christopher Hill said measures targeting North Korea would remain and were the price of "life in the big city."

"The DPRK [North Korea] needs to understand that as long as it is producing nuclear weapons we are going to have a real close look at its finances," he said.

"It is fair to say that that country, any such country, is going to have its finances looked at ... that is kind of life in the big city," he said.

Hill, the US assistant secretary of state for asian and pacific affairs, arrived here on Wednesday from Tokyo where representatives from the six nations engaged in the nuclear talks gathered informally.

He refused to hold talks with North Korean envoy Kim Kye-gwan, saying that there was no point in meeting outside the six-party format.

Hill said North Korea had to return to the talks because the deal on offer may not last.

"We have a very good deal on the table. It is a deal that serves everybody's interests," Hill said at a lunch hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce.

"North Korea will come to understand that this is a very good deal that they will not have for ever to consider," he said.

He said the pretext for North Korea's boycott -- financial sanctions -- made little sense.

The US Treasury Department in September banned US financial institutions from dealing with Banco Delta Asia, a Macau-based bank that it suspects of being a willing front for laundering money for North Korea.

A month later the US blacklisted eight North Korean companies allegedly involved in the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

The Macau bank has since frozen between 30 and 40 North Korea accounts holding about US$20 million to allow it to investigate the money laundering allegations, Hill said.

He said the amount frozen is insignificant compared to what North Korea stands to gain from six-party talks.

In the penultimate round in September, North Korea agreed to give up its nuclear weapons in return for economic and diplomatic benefits.

Under a agreement on the table at the talks, North Korea would receive more than that each week in energy aid alone, Hill said.

He suggested North Korea may simply be using the financial sanctions as an excuse to delay the talks.

"What I think is concerning or what troubles many people is the question on how serious the DPRK is in following up the six-party talks process," Hill said.
This story has been viewed 1264 times.