Christopher Hill, Washington's chief nuclear envoy, promised to make his best efforts to settle his country's financial row with Pyongyang but said he was not confident of the outcome, a senior South Korean government official said Thursday.
Assistant Secretary of State Hill also told his North Korean counterpart during their meeting in Beijing earlier this week that the U.S. will push for sanctions on the North under the U.N. resolution to punish Pyongyang for its nuclear test regardless of its decision to rejoin the six-way talks on its nuclear program, the official added.
"(North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister) Kim Kye-gwan called for the U.S. to lift its financial sanctions on North Korea during his meeting with Hill in Beijing (on Tuesday)," the official said, asking not to be named, citing information from the Chinese and U.S. authorities. "And Hill gave the answer."
North Korea agreed to return to the nuclear talks in the suprise Beijing meeting brokered by Chinese top nuclear negotiator Wu Dawei.
The communist state made it clear that it made the decision because of the U.S. pledge to "discuss and settle" the disputes over its blacklisting of Banco Delta Asia (BDA) in Macau.
In September last year, the U.S. Treasury Department ordered financial entities on American soil to cut transactions with the bank, accusing it of serving as a conduit for the North's counterfeiting of U.S. dollars and money laundering.
Pyongyang has urged the U.S. to lift the restrictions before trying to resolve the nuclear crisis.
"I think some discussions are under way even in the U.S. administration over the BDA issue," the official said. "We (South Koreans) don't need to jump to a conclusion on what will happen at the decision of the U.S."
The State Department appears to be seeking flexibility, but the Treasury Department in charge of the matter maintains its position that the financial row is unrelated to the nuclear negotiations, he added.
His comments came amid a controversy over how soon the U.S. Treasury will end its ongoing probe into the BDA and pave the way for progress in the six-way talks.
South Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said on Wednesday that he expected it to finish in the near future.
When President Roh Moo-hyun visited Washington in September for a summit with President George W. Bush, he met with U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
Roh reportedly asked Paulson to wrap up the investigation as early as possible, and the secretary was quoted as saying the BDA case is too complicated to finish the related probe at an early date.
Seoul, Nov. 2 (Yonhap News)
U.S. nuke envoy vows efforts to resolve financial row with N.K.: S. Korean officials |
