[imText1]The six party talks established to resolve North Korea’s nuclear issue has been set to reconvene in Beijing on Feb 8th. Korea’s Foreign Ministry released the following on the 30th.
A source of Korea’s Foreign Ministry said “The meeting between the U.S. and North Korea in Berlin certainly influenced the reconvening of the six party talks. The date for the talks was confirmed once the Chinese government individually contacted each member state. As long as there are no major divergences, it appears the talks will reconvene on the 8th next month.”
The government official said “In order to make final preparations before the talks reconvene, Assistant-Secretary Hill is expected to visit Korea and Japan to confer the details” and “It is expected that Assistant-Secretary Hill will either visit Korea early next week or this weekend” reported Yonhap news.
In an interview with Reuters on the 30th, Assistant-Secretary Hill suggested the possibility of the six party talks resembling the North Korea-U.S. agreed framework and negotiations made at the Geneva Conference in 1994. However, he mentioned that though preparations were being made, in the end the real motive of the talks was to go further.
[imText2]In order to separate the six party talks with the issue of financial sanctions, the U.S. took one step back raising the possibility of releasing the $13mn caught in North Korean accounts at Banco Delta Asia Bank, reported a Japanese press.
However, North Korea is pressing in the first place that it would only freeze its nukes while other participating member states directly push for the dismantling of nukes. Hence, others argue that there is a long way to go before a compromise will be made.
Another incident gaining interest is the financial negotiations to take place on the afternoon of 30th between the U.S. and North Korea. At a press conference, Daniel Glaser, head of the U.S. delegation to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) expressed aspirations of a result from the upcoming negotiations with North Korea.
Glaser hoped that progress would be made and said that a strong base had been established at the first round of financial talks and that it was time that results were built. He revealed that there were many agendas to be opened and expected that the talks would experience some turmoil. The talks between the U.S. and North Korea will officially begin on the 30th over a period of 2, 3 days.
Regarding the financial offences, the U.S. Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey said that it was completely up to North Korea to redeem its own reputation.
