[USFK Forums] Bush Administration Won't Lift N. Korea Sanctions [AP/UPI]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Wednesday, January 4, 2006: Two articles as follows:

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Bush Administration Won't Lift North Korea Sanctions

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration on Tuesday rejected a North Korean demand that it lift sanctions as a way of possibly resuming stalled nuclear disarmament talks.

The two issues are unrelated, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "I don't see in what way they are preventing North Korea from going back to the six-party talks."

The sanctions were imposed for alleged currency counterfeiting and other illegal activities.

"While under U.S. sanctions, it's impossible to sit face-to-face and discuss abandoning our nuclear deterrent," said the Rodong Sinmun, the North's ruling Workers Party newspaper, in a Korean-language commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

"The U.S. sanctions are obviously the fundamental element that disrupts the six-party talks," the newspaper said.

McCormack said it was important and reasonable for the United States to protect American currency. "We, the United States, as well as other countries are going to take steps to stop, inhibit or prevent illicit activities," he said.

The negotiations are designed to halt North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The six nations, which include Japan, China, South Korea and Russia, as well as the United States and North Korea, agreed in November to return to the negotiations as soon as possible, McCormack said.

"We are prepared to do so, and we look forward to the resumption of those talks," he said.

As for the alleged violations, the spokesman said the United States had offered North Korea a briefing and was turned down.
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North Korea demands U.S. end sanctions

TOKYO, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- North Korea called on the United States to lift sanctions if it wants to resume talks on the North's nuclear weapons ambitions, Kyoto News reports.

"The U.S. should, first of all, lift its sanctions against the DPRK, the main factor of scuttling the talks, before talking about the resumption of the talks," the official Rodong Sinmun daily said in a commentary carried by the Korean Central News Agency, monitored in Tokyo.

DPRK is an acronym for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.

The six-way talks, held for the fifth time last November, included the United States, North and South Korea, China, Japan and Russia, but made little progress.

Following the fourth round of talks in September, all parties issued a joint statement saying that North Korea agreed to give up its nuclear programs in exchange for energy aid and security assurances.

But disputes over the wording of the agreement have halted the process.