[USFK Forums] U.S. envoy interested but cautious about counterfeiting vow [JoongAng]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Saturday, February 11, 2006

U.S. envoy interested but cautious about counterfeiting vow

February 11, 2006 ㅡ A day after the North Korean government said it would join international efforts to fight financial crimes, the U.S. ambassador to Seoul, Alexander Vershbow, said yesterday that the announcement was “an interesting development in light of our concerns about North Korea’s involvement in money laundering in recent years.” He was participating in a scheduled chat with Korean Internet users through an embassy translator.

But because Pyongyang still insisted it has not been involved in any illegal activities, Mr. Vershbow said, the North must follow through on the statement.

“We hope that it reflects decisions by the North Korean government to stop its involvement in illicit activities,” the U.S. envoy said, “but we obviously need to know more about what the statement represents and, more importantly, we need to see whether North Korea takes concrete actions that are consistent with its words.

As always, we will analyze the DPRK’s statement but the real measure of North Korea’s intention is its concrete actions.” DPRK is the abbreviation for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.

Yesterday was the first anniversary of Pyongyang’s first open boast that it had developed nuclear weapons. Talks in Beijing to rid the peninsula of those weapons are stalled, and Washington has slapped sanctions on North Korean trading agencies that have begun to bite into Pyongyang’s hard currency sources. The North has refused to return to those six-nation nuclear talks until the sanctions are lifted.

But Pyongyang’s boycott and Thursday’s announcement that North Korea wanted to be a partner in the global fight against financial fraud may have given Washington sufficient proof that pushing back against Pyongyang’s rhetoric and its penchant for diplomatic brinksmanship can be effective. Most analysts read the announcement as a signal that the reclusive regime was seeking a way out of the financial box it finds itself in.

“Pyongyang has signaled strongly that it is willing to address the issue,” said Koh Yoo-hwan, a North Korea watcher at Dongguk University. He argues that the North is still not convinced that Washington’s ultimate goal is not a regime change there, a plausible hypothesis even to people who might disagree. He said the sanctions imposed in response to the counterfeiting have made the North’s leadership wonder why Washington focused on that issue rather than on resolving the nuclear issue at the negotiating table.


by Brian Lee