N. Korea and U.S. meet one-to-one on nuclear, financial issues, but no breakthroughs

Tuesday, December 19th 2006, 10:24 am

By: News On 6

BEIJING (AP) U.S. and North Korean diplomats met face-to-face Tuesday to discuss international efforts to get the communist regime to give up its nuclear arms program and the North's demand for Washington to stop trying to freeze it out of the global banking system.

U.S. officials gave no indication of any progress after two days in the latest round of six-nation talks, which have failed over more than three years of meetings to dismantle the North's atomic weapons program, or prevent its first nuclear test explosion October 9.

``We don't have really any breakthroughs to report,'' U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said after meeting with a North Korean delegation on the nuclear weapons issue. Financial experts discussed the banking restrictions separately.

The North entered the talks by restating its long-held demands, emboldened by its confirmed nuclear status and raising doubts about chances for a quick resolution of the standoff that began in late 2002.

Hill conceded this negotiating round is a test for the five partners, China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the U.S., in trying to get the North to disarm.

``We need to establish credibility with that marketplace of opinion and we need to show that in fact this can lead us to the goal, because we cannot accept anything less than the goal of denuclearization,'' he said.

No end date has been set for the talks, but Hill added: ``I really want to see something get done this week.'' Earlier, he said a failure in the talks could lead to more sanctions against Pyongyang.

Japan's chief delegate, Kenichiro Sasae, said he hoped North Korea would ``take a more forward-looking stance'' when talks resumed Wednesday.

``There is still a big gap remaining despite our earlier expectations for an early result,'' Sasae said. ``There was nothing that we can be optimistic about.''

The impoverished North pledged in September 2005 to abandon its nuclear arms program in exchange for security guarantees, diplomatic recognition and economic aid.

But just days before that agreement, the U.S. blacklisted a Macau bank where the Pyongyang regime held accounts, charging it was aiding the North's alleged counterfeiting of $100 bills and money laundering. The U.S. also urged other countries to bar North Korean accounts.

The North later cited that move as the reason for its refusal to participate in nuclear talks for more than 13 months, but agreed to return when the U.S. said it would discuss the financial restrictions.

When the nuclear talks opened Monday, the North demanded anew that the bank measures be lifted as a precondition for discussing nuclear disarmament.

U.S. and North Korean financial experts talked about the issue for about three hours at the U.S. Embassy on Tuesday, but the head of the American delegation said there wouldn't be any quick solution.

``This is going to have to be a long-term process by which we all work to address the fundamental underlying concerns that we've expressed in the past, and that are frankly the concerns of the international financial community,'' said Daniel Glaser, the U.S. Treasury Department's deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes.

The two sides were to meet again Wednesday at the North Korean Embassy.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a news briefing that China's government hope the two sides can ``solve the issue properly.''

``We wish to see them make positive achievements that we believe will facilitate the process of the (nuclear arms) talks,'' he said.

Discussing the nuclear talks, Hill praised China's renewed will to persuade North Korea to disarm since the nuclear test and said Beijing had a ``very special role to play.''

``To solve the problem of the (North's) nuclear ambitions is going to require a great effort by China,'' he said. ``We cannot do it by ourselves, we need to work in this multilateral framework.''

China backed a U.N. Security Council resolution sanctioning the North after the atomic test, but Beijing has refrained from tough moves to cut off the key economic lifeline as its isolated neighbor's largest trading partner.

The North must work to resolve the crisis, Hill said.

``I really do believe that at the end of this six-party process, however it turns out, it will help determine that country's future in a way I think is fairly profound,'' he said.