[imText1]Daniel Glaser, the U.S. Treasury Department assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes, said, on Tuesday, that negotiation with North Korea on financial sanctions issue would be a “long-term agenda,” the Associated Press reported.
Glaser held a 3-hour meeting with Oh Kwang Chul, chairman of the Korea Trade Bank, at the US embassy in Beijing, and told reporters that if the negotiation to be efficient it should be a long-term procedure.
The second session of meeting between the US and NK head delegates on financial issue is scheduled on Wednesday.
South Korea’s the Chosun Ilbo reported, quoting an anonymous source, that the US side suggested the financial sanctions to be solved early if North Korea punish those who involved in counterfeit activities and abandon dollar-bill printing equipments. According to the Chosun Ilbo’s report, Glaser told North Korea’s chief financial delegate Oh about the option and explained the US legal process.
[imText2]Another source said that if North Korea decides to bring forgers to trial, negotiation over BDA accounts would meet more favorable end for North Korea. If the reports are true, the United States might have changed its position to a more flexible one.
If Washington, however, clarifies the North Korean authorities as responsible of dollar-bills counterfeiting and asks North Koreans to accept international inspection team to destroy dollar printing equipments and to recall counterfeit bills, then official policy over financial sanctions of the US government might have not transformed.
Meanwhile, Tony Snow, spokesperson of the White House, said in a briefing “Unless there is abolition of nuclear weapons in North Korea, there will be no revocation of financial sanctions.”
And Sean McCormack, the US Department of State’s spokesperson, in an interview, argued for North Korea’s return to the pre-nuclear test state.
