U.S. indicates progress in financial talks with North Korea

The U.S. State Department said Wednesday financial talks with North Korea were "useful" and expressed hopes for an eventual resolution.

"I think they had a good session, probably a useful exchange of information, and look forward to seeing those discussions continue at some later date," department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters.

U.S. Treasury officials and their North Korean counterparts had just concluded their second day of talks on Wednesday in Beijing, addressing punitive measures taken against a bank the U.S. accuses of laundering money for Pyongyang.

"We got some information that was very helpful to us," Deputy Assistant Secretary Daniel Glaser, chief U.S. delegate to the talks, said in Beijing.

"I think we are now in a position after a very lengthy investigation... to start moving forward and trying to bring some resolution to this matter," he said.

The financial working group plans to meet again, but has not yet set a date, Glaser said.

The comments suggest Pyongyang was forthcoming about the accusations leveled against it that include counterfeiting of American currency and cigarettes as well as drug trafficking.

After years of investigation, the Treasury in September 2005 designated Macau's Banco Delta Asia (BDA) as a primary money launderer for North Korea. Pyongyang says the designation amounts to sanctions and used it as its reason for boycotting six-nation denuclearization talks.

The nuclear negotiations are scheduled to resume on Feb. 8.

Glaser said the two sides went through nearly 50 BDA accounts one by one, trying to address questions the Treasury had raised with North Korea before their Beijing meeting.

BDA froze some $US24 million of North Korean funds after the designation, but some foreign companies have complained that their business' licit money has also been suspended.

A senior State Department official, asking not to be named, said Glaser's remarks were "pretty forward-leaning" and that one could infer from them the latest session would help resolve the financial issues.

He said North Korean officials explained facts about various Pyongyang-related accounts and "what the accounts are for."

But there is no immediate action to come out of the financial round at this point, he said.

Washington/Beijing, Feb. 1 (Yonhap New)