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The U.S. has said the question of North Korea¡¯s frozen accounts in the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia could be resolved early if North Korea punishes counterfeiters of U.S. dollars and destroys their equipment. The two sides had their first working group meeting on the U.S. financial sanctions at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing on Tuesday. Sources in Beijing said Daniel Glaser, the U.S. Treasury Department's deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes, explained law enforcement procedures to the North Korean group chief Oh Gwang-chul and proposed the solution. The reasons the U.S. is more willing to resolve the matter by this route, pundits say, are that the Treasury has as good as wrapped up its investigation and that Washington feels it needs to make visible progress at least in resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis amid mounting criticism over its failure to stabilize Iraq. Another source in Beijing said progress in the working group depends on North Korea¡¯s willingness to hold those responsible for making the so-called supernotes to account.
The international press turned out in force for Oh, the president of the Foreign Trade Bank of North Korea, who went straight into the meeting on arriving in Beijing on Tuesday. Some 100 reporters were gathered in front of the U.S. Embassy -- proof if any were needed that the media see the issue as crucial. North Korea has boycotted the talks for over a year in protest at the U.S. sanctions.
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Oh Gwang-chul, president of the Foreign Trade Bank of North Korea, refuses to answer reporters¡¯ questions as he arrives at Beijing Capital International Airport on Tuesday morning./Yonhap
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There has clearly been a turning point in Washington¡¯s attitude. Ever since it froze the accounts, the U.S. was adamant that the North Korean regime must be held to account for the forgeries and rejected any face-saving solution whereby the North would punish nominal culprits as if they had acted independently -- the very option it is proposing now. Sources in Beijing note that Pyongyang too has changed its tune. They said the fact that the North did not insist on China¡¯s official Diaoyutai Guesthouse, which is ¡°neutral territory¡±, as a negotiating venue and agreed to meet at the U.S. mission sends a positive signal. They also say North Korea's choice of Oh, a financial expert, to head its delegation shows it is willing to make substantial progress.
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The North Korean delegation in a working group on U.S. financial sanctions leave the U.S. Embassy in a car in Beijing on Tuesday as reporters look on./Yonhap
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North Korea's delegation in a March meeting on the problem in New York was headed by the Foreign Ministry's U.S. chief Li Gun. A diplomatic source in Beijing said the two sides are unlikely to resolve the entire problem in the first meeting, but added it was ¡°safe to say that the atmosphere was not bad¡± at this early stage.
If North Korea welcomes the change in U.S. attitude and cooperates in resolving the problem, the U.S. may agree to lift the sanctions on North Korea¡¯s foreign currency supplies and the two sides can make headway on dismantling the North¡¯s nuclear program. It remains to be seen if the North will take the bait since it claimed in Tuesday¡¯s meeting to have been just another victim of the dollar forgeries. Pundits predict it will take time before Washington's new attitude is delivered to the North Korean leadership and it gives instructions how to respond.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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