The U.S. government has figured out most of North Korea's transactions in a Macau bank and believes they were mostly personal dealings involving Pyongyang's leadership, a diplomatic source here said Wednesday.
Washington has studied North Korea's transaction records with the Banco Delta Asia, where about US$24 million of cash is deposited by North Korea, but frozen by U.S. sanctions.
The bank in the Chinese territory froze about 40 North Korean accounts last year after it came to the brink of bankruptcy as U.S.
banks stopped their transactions with it in response to Washington's claim that Pyongyang was laundering its illicitly earned money there.
The U.S. found that the bank has produced handwritten transaction data regarding North Korea in addition to official computer records, the source said on condition of anonymity. The bank seemed to have used written records of the North Korean transactions as a way to hide them from official view, the source said.
Washington believes these transactions were "personal," involved Pyongyang's leadership and possibly managed the slush funds for North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, judging from the vast amount of money transferred there, the source said.
However, another financial source in Washington said the handwritten data could be nothing more than North Korea's customary practice of avoiding attention.
North Korea demands the U.S. free its Macau bank accounts, a reason that it has boycotted the six-party talks over its nuclear weapons program.
Washington, July 20 (Yonhap News)
U.S. believes N.K.'s Macau bank account linked to Kim Jong-il |
