Backgrounder: US on financial talks with DPRK

WATCH VIDEO

Source: CCTV.com | 02-01-2007 08:28

The last round of negotiations in Beijing between the U.S. and the DPRK in late December were met with great difficulties, financial sanctions being the biggest hurdle.

Pyongyang has made the lifting of these sanctions a precondition for its disarmament.

But the US maintained its position --- denuclearization or sanctions.

Christopher Hill, US assistant Secretary of State, said, “We can either go forward on a diplomatic track or we have to go to a much more difficult track and that is a track that involves sanctions.”

Washington and Pyongyang have been at odds over the nuclear issue for more than ten years.

For the first time, all six parties agreed on an accord on September 19, 2005, in which the DPRK said it would abandon its nuclear program in exchange for economic aid and security guarantees.

But just four days after the agreement, the US imposed financial sanctions against a bank in Macao where the DPRK held accounts. It argued the sanctions were to prevent further complicity by the DPRK in counterfeiting US currency as well as money laundering.