[imText1]Following talks in Beijing between U.S. Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary Daniel Glaser and North Korean officials that were aimed at resolving the dispute over North Korea’s counterfeiting of U.S. currency, a source close to the North Korean government informed Reuters on Wednesday, 31 January 2007, that, “North Korea will feel compelled to announce plans for another nuclear test if the financial dispute with Washington is not resolved.”
Secretary Glaser told Reuters that U.S. Secret Service presented North Korean officials with their findings on the counterfeiting of U.S. currency. The North Korean source stated that “The United States has no evidence, just like it had no evidence Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.”
The source told Reuters that, “If the United States does not resolve it, North Korea will have no choice but to announce at the six-party talks that it plans to conduct another [nuclear] test… if the United States does not resolve it [counterfeiting dispute], North Korea would be a ‘sinner’ taking part in the six-party talks … North Korea would have no face and could not be on equal footing with the other parties at the six-party talks.”
On 15 September 2005, the US Treasury labeled Banco Delta Asia, Macao, as a “primary money laundering concern” in response to illicit North Korean activities. According to Arms Control Today, a publication by the Arms Control Association, the U.S. believes that Banco Delta Asia provided financial services to North Korean government agencies and front companies involved in drug trafficking, the distribution of counterfeit U.S. currency, and smuggling of counterfeit tobacco products and pharmaceuticals. The U.S. government froze $24 million in North Korean accounts.
