U.S. seeking own financial sanctions on N. Korea separately from U.N.: State Dept.

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, June 5 (Yonhap) -- The United States said Friday that it will pursue
its own financial sanctions against North Korea aside from those discussed at the
U.N. for the North's recent nuclear test.
"The steps we've taken in the past in the banking sector, you know, certainly did
get North Korea's attention previously. And if we find ways that we can do that,
we will do so," said Philip Crowley, assistant secretary of state for public
affairs, in a daily news briefing.
Crowley was discussing the financial sanctions Washington slapped on a Macau bank
in 2005 to freeze US$25 million worth of North Korean assets to effectively cut
off North Korea's access to the international financial system. Banco Delta Asia
had been accused of helping North Korea launder money from circulating
sophisticated counterfeit US$100 bills called "supernotes."
The remarks come amid a flurry of diplomacy under way at the U.N. Security
Council and Asian capitals to sanction North Korea financially for its second
nuclear test in nearly three years to pressure the reclusive communist state to
return to six-party talks on ending its nuclear ambitions.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg is coming home from a weeklong
trip to Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo to seek support for general arms and financial
embargoes aimed at shutting down North Korea's main source of hard currency
income and access to foreign financial institutions.
U.S. Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey, who played a central role in the BDA
sanctions, is accompanying Steinberg in light of recent findings that North Korea
circulated about $US1 million worth of supernotes at a South Korean port late
last year.
Crowley, however, made it clear that the focus will be on sanctioning North Korea
multilaterally through the Security Council.
"We're looking at what steps that we can take, principally in collaboration with
others in the six-party process," he said. "We will continue to use, you know,
whatever levers that we see available and we think will be effective, but our
ultimate objective is to get back to negotiations and to start to once again make
progress on the commitments that North Korea has made previously."
North Korea has threatened to boycott the six-party talks, demanding the security
council apologize its rebuke for the April 5 rocket launch, which Pyongyang said
was to orbit a satellite.
In defiance of the international condemnation, North Korea detonated its second
nuclear device early last week, fired several missiles and threatened to nullify
the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War unless the U.S. ceases what it
calls hostile behavior.
The provocations are widely seen as an attempt by ailing North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il to help his third and youngest son, Jong-un, to consolidate power in an
unprecedented third generation dynastic power transfer.
In fragile health after an apparent stroke last summer, Kim Jong-il officially
anointed Jong-un as his successor soon after the latest nuclear test.
Talk is rife on Kim Jong-il's true intentions, with some saying Pyongyang will
return to the negotiating table with the U.S. either bilaterally or
multilaterally, while others are pessimistic about Pyongyang abandoning its
nuclear arsenal.
China, North Korea's staunchest communist ally, is key to effective
implementation of any sanctions on North Korea, heavily dependent on its
communist neighbor in energy, food and other necessities.
Crowley dismissed concerns that Beijing is lukewarm to any strong sanctions on
North Korea for fear of undermining its influence.
"There has been strong unanimity within the United Nations that there will be a
resolution," he said. "We're working assiduously on what form that resolution
will take place. Progress is being made in negotiations that we have ongoing in
New York."
China and Russia, veto powers on the council, thwarted the effort by the U.S. and
its allies in April to adopt a legally binding resolution on North Korea's rocket
launch, resulting in a largely symbolic council presidential statement.
They demanded any sanctions be conducive to coaxing the reclusive North into
getting back to the multilateral nuclear disarmament talks.
Ambassadors of the five permanent members of the council, plus South Korea and
Japan, are expected to meet at the U.N. headquarters in New York later in the day
to discuss drafting a resolution.
South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said in New York Thursday that he
expects an agreement by the weekend.
"China and Russia oppose bolstering interdiction of vessels, citing possible
violations of international law," Yu said. "It might be a bit easy for us to
agree to financial sanctions as it is about a technical issue of what entities to
sanction."
Yu will meet with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton later in the day in
Washington to discuss how to deal with North Korea's nuclear and ballistic
missile ambitions and also preparations for a summit between South Korean
President Lee Myung-bak and U.S. President Barack Obama on June 16.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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