Korean Foreign Ministry sources said based on the findings China is in the midst of trying to convince North Korea that it needs to take steps in the matter. They said South Korea’s Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon and his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei have already met in Beijing to discuss the issue. Both are their country’s chief delegate in six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, which Pyongyang is boycotting because of U.S. sanctions over the counterfeiting charge.

Wu also met with his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-gwan to inform him in person that China believes Pyongyang cannot escape culpability for its illegal actions, the diplomats said. They quoted Kim as promising to look into the matter and take appropriate steps “if they are true.” The U.S. believes nothing short of a full confession and a verifiable end to the dollar forgery will do.

Washington has banned transactions of U.S. firms with the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia, which it says permitted North Korean agents to make secret transactions of hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and of laundering profits from drug trafficking and counterfeiting on behalf of North Korean overseas firms.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said on the same day the talks between Song and Wu centered on “creative ideas about ways of resolving international concern” over North Korea’s alleged counterfeiting. Song for his part said “calm discussions” among the countries concerned are under way to resolve the issue, “which has been a stumbling block to resumption of the six-party talks, and on how to bring out substantial progress if six-party talks resume.”

The U.S. chief negotiator Christopher Hill is expected to meet Song in Seoul on Thursday to discuss the matter.

(englishnews@chosun.com )