[USKF Forums] N. Korea agrees to hold talks with US on counterfeiting [AFP]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Friday, February 24, 2006

North Korea agrees to hold talks with US on counterfeiting

Friday, Febaury 24, 2006 1 hour, 9 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) - North Korea has agreed to hold discussions with the United States on the Stalinist state's alleged counterfeiting and money laundering activities that led to US sanctions and a breakdown in nuclear talks, the State Department said.

North Korean officials are to attend a March 7 briefing by the US Treasury on the financial sanctions imposed by Washington over the illicit activities, the department said.

"We had an offer on the table for some time to the North Koreans to come for a briefing on actions that we have taken in response to illicit financial activities. They have agreed to do that," deputy department spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters.

The so-called technical experts meeting in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations will also be attended by State Department and National Security Council officials. The United States has no diplomatic ties with North Korea.

It will be "about what steps we've taken, why we've taken them, the laws that pertain and to see if we can clarify, maybe, some of the questions that North Korea has," Ereli said.

The US Treasury Department in September told US financial institutions to stop dealing with a Macau bank, Banco Delta Asia, which it accused of being a front for North Korea's illicit financial activities.

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

The United States believes the Macau bank helped North Korea launder earnings from counterfeiting US bank notes, trafficking illicit narcotics, smuggling contraband cigarettes and other illegal enterprises.

North Korea said Washington must lift the sanctions for resumption of six-party talks aimed at ending the hardline communist nation's nuclear weapons drive.

Inconclusive nuclear talks have been held for about two years among the United States, the two Koreas, Russia, China and Japan.

Pyongyang argues that the US sanctions breached the spirit of a September pact secured at the nuclear talks, in which North Korea agreed in principle to disband its atomic weapons program in return for economic and diplomatic benefits.

North Korea has repeatedly denied US charges of illegal financial activities but said it would join international efforts to counter money laundering and other illicit activities.



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