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Wachovia Corp, one of the U.S.¡¯ largest banks, could serve as a go-between for the transfer of North Korea¡¯s assets from Macau¡¯s Banco Delta Asia. The Washington Post on Thursday reported the bank ¡°is considering a request from the State Department to transfer tainted money tied to North Korea from an overseas bank blacklisted earlier this year by the Treasury Department.¡± The bank is discussing easing related regulations with the State Department. Established in 1908, Wachovia has branches in 22 states in the U.S. and was a U.S. correspondent bank for the Macau bank.
Wachovia spokeswoman Christy Phillips-Brown told the Washington Post the bank is considering the transfer request. But she made it clear that the transfer must be regarded as an exception to a U.S. law, which bans any financial transactions with BDA, saying that the bank ¡°would not agree to any request without appropriate approvals.¡± The daily reported State Department officials have been working to get a U.S. bank to play an intermediary role in the transfer, although some Treasury and White House officials oppose the idea.
Meanwhile, both North Korea and the U.S. are apparently optimistic about removing obstacles to the transfer, which have delayed the North¡¯s shutdown of its nuclear facilities under a Feb. 13 agreement. U.S. top nuclear envoy Christopher Hill recently has repeatedly said that satisfactory results on the BDA issue are expected this week. North Korea also promised to start shutting down its nuclear facilities as soon as the banking issue is resolved.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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