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The U.S. chief delegate at stalled six-nation talks on North Korea¡¯s nuclear program on Wednesday held out some hope that the negotiations could resume soon despite tough talk from Washington and Pyongyang. Christopher Hill said his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-gwan at a meeting in Beijing last week "indicated they would be prepared to subscribe to international norms with respect to money laundering and would want to cooperate internationally on these issues." Washington has slapped sanctions on North Korean firms for their involvement in financial crimes.
But Hill told Reuters his government was ¡°not looking here for words. We're more interested in actions. We'd like to see this (illicit) activity cease." Hill said he ¡°made very clear that financial measures -- what we'd call defensive measures -- are quite separate from the issue of the six-party talks, and the way to end those measures was to end the activity that those measures were designed to counter," according to the news agency.
Hill said the Chinese were ¡°optimistic¡± that the six-way talks will resume in the middle of February but admitted that there has been no agreement on a timetable. White House spokesman Scott McClellan on Wednesday also told reporters there were signs that North Korea wants to get back to the negotiating table but did not specify what the signs were.
The ¡°international norm¡± the North Korean chief delegate referred to likely means 10 stipulations laid down by the UN, including its Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and Security Council Resolution 1540 against money laundering to finance terrorism. Nations who subscribe are encouraged to enact legislation that prohibits terror financing, but that is not mandatory. It is thus unclear if subscribing alone would put an end to all Pyongyang¡¯s illegal activities. North Korea already subscribed to an international accord on terror financing in 2001.
South Korean officials also point out that the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) has such a complicated set of conditions that even South Korea has yet to sign up. ¡°North Korea couldn¡¯t subscribe to it even if it wanted to,¡± they add.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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