NK wants direct military talks with U.S.

SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) - North Korea called on Friday for military talks with the United States for peace and security on the peninsula, with Washington saying it can discuss a peace treaty after Pyongyang abandons its nuclear program.

Pyongyang, which often muddies the waters ahead of crucial moves concerning its atomic ambitions, is set to receive a team of U.N. nuclear personnel on Saturday who are to oversee the shutdown of its reactor and source of weapons-grade plutonium.

Six-way talks on ending North Korea's nuclear arms programs are set to resume on Wednesday in Beijing. The North, which has long sought direct talks with the United States, usually holds bilateral meetings with U.S. officials within those discussions.

"The Korean People's Army side proposes having talks between the DPRK and U.S. militaries to be attended by a U.N. representative," the North's military said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

The North, officially known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, said the talks would be for "discussing the issues related to ensuring the peace and security on the Korean peninsula".

U.S. officials have said in recent weeks that Washington is ready to discuss normalizing ties and a peace treaty to end the Korean War if the North follows up on its recent progress in disarmament and completely scraps its atomic arms program.

An analyst said this may be a ploy from reclusive North Korea to drive a wedge between the United States and it ally, the South.

"The comments appear to be intended to exclude South Korea and China in any talks for a peace treaty and to include the subject of removing U.S. troops from the South as part of the talks," head of North Korean military research at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, Baek Seung-joo said.

There have been reports in the South Korean media that officials are seeking a four-way dialogue among China, the two Koreas and the United States to examine a peace treaty. The North may have been responding to these reports, Baek said.

The 1950-1953 Korean War ended in a truce. The United States, which led U.N. forces, was a signatory to the armistice as well as North Korea and its ally, China. South Korea did not sign.

The United States stations about 30,000 troops in the South to support the country's some 670,000 strong military against an attack by the North.

The North repeated an often used line that the United States is bringing the peninsula to the brink of nuclear war and called on it to stop joint military drills with the South as well as cut out what it saw as a hostile policy to stifle it.

"It is the undeniable and legitimate right of the DPRK to have in place all the necessary self-defensive means to cope with the threat and blackmail of the U.S. in order to protect its right to existence," the North's statement said.

In a February deal among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, the North agreed to shut down its antiquated reactor in return for 50,000 tonnes of oil aid. E-mail to a friend.

N. Korea: Atomic inspectors can return

Source: CNN, June 16, 2007.

(CNN) -- North Korea has invited inspectors from the U.N. nuclear watchdog back into the country to monitor the shut down of its main nuclear reactor, state media reports.

A letter inviting a "working level" delegation to visit and monitor the suspension of the operations of nuclear facilities was sent to the International Atomic Energy Agency, North's Korean Central News Agency reported Saturday.

Earlier Saturday, frozen North Korean funds that were thawed as part of a February agreement to get Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program were transferred out of a bank in Macau, China, to a Russian bank, where North Korea has an account.

Ri Je Son, North Korea's director general of the General Department of Atomic Energy, sent a letter to the IAEA confirming that transfer of the funds was completed as required before the invitation would be extended, according to KCNA.

Francis Tam Pak-yuen, Macau's secretary of economy and finance, said more than $20 million went from Banco Delta Asia to a North Korean account in a small private Russian bank via the Macau Monetary Authority, the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Russian central bank.

The funding, $25 million, was frozen at the bank in late 2005 at the request of the United States, which claimed some of the funding came from illegal activities. As part of a February deal agreed upon during six-party talks aimed at North Korea's denuclearization, however, the funds were freed.

North Korea had been expected to announce its steps in implementing the six-party agreement upon confirmation of the money transfer. Under the agreement, North Korea will shut down its Yongbyon reactor and allow the IAEA back into the country to monitor the process.

Besides freeing up the funds, countries involved in the six-party talks are to provide emergency energy assistance equivalent to 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil.

The agreement was reached in September after six-party talks involving North Korea, the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

At a February 13 meeting, a set of initial actions were agreed upon, including freeing the Macau funding.

In exchange for North Korea's denuclearization, the nations have pledged to provide the reclusive Communist nation with political and economic incentives and security guarantees.

Historical issues stall Japan-North Korea talks

Source: CNN.

HANOI, Vietnam (Reuters) -- Japan and North Korea cut short talks on Thursday about establishing diplomatic ties after wrangling again over historical differences, officials said.

Japan said the two sides would "continue to exchange views" but no date was scheduled for more talks, part of a six-country deal last month to halt impoverished Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program in exchange for aid and diplomatic recognition.

Japan says forming ties is impossible without resolution of the issue of Japanese abducted by the reclusive communist state in the 1970s and 1980s. Meanwhile, North Korea is pressing for settlement of issues stemming from Japan's harsh 1910-45 colonial rule over the Korean peninsula.

North Korea's chief negotiator Song Il-ho told reporters after Thursday's session at the North Korean embassy in Hanoi that the abduction issue "has been completely resolved by our sincere efforts".

He urged Japan to settle the past, lift sanctions and stop "suppressing" North Koreans living in Japan.

North Korea admitted in 2002 that its agents had abducted 13 Japanese to train Pyongyang spies in Japanese culture and language, sparking outrage in Japan.

Five people were repatriated. Japan has demanded the return of any survivors, but Pyongyang says the other eight are dead and cannot be sent back.

In a briefing, Song described Japan's position as "an unreasonable insistence." But Japan's delegation head, Koichi Haraguchi said, "It is deplorable that North Korea did not respond sincerely to the abduction issue."

The original schedule had called for two full days of talks in communist-run Vietnam, which has good relations with both Japan and North Korea.

Delegates met on Wednesday morning at the Japanese embassy, but then cancelled an afternoon session at the North Korean embassy. Thursday's meeting lasted less than an hour.

As part of the deal struck in Beijing, North Korea this week sent its chief nuclear envoy to the United States for talks and a delegation to meet the Japanese. By contrast, the talks in New York were "very good" according to an American envoy.

The Japan-North Korea talks were the first since they met in Beijing more than a year ago. Those made no visible progress, either.

In Tokyo, Kyodo news agency reported on Thursday that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe might order a new study of the government's role in forcing women, many of them Koreans, to act as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War Two.

Abe has angered the Koreans and other Asians with remarks that appeared to question the state's role, although he has also said a 1993 apology acknowledging coercion remained in effect. (Full story)

Separately on Wednesday at the United Nations, North Korea's envoy accused Japan of creating "a horrific atmosphere of terror" for pro-Pyongyang groups in Japan with investigations into their activities following Pyongyang's 2006 nuclear and missile tests.

Western, Asian and developing nations on the board of the Vienna-based U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency watchdog on Wednesday urged North Korea to honor the deal toward de-nuclearization of the divided Korean Peninsula.

The six-party agreement included North and South Korea, which are still technically at war after the truce that ended the 1950-53 Korean war. The others are the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

High expectations set for NK talks

Source: CNN.

SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) -- North Korea is fully prepared to shut down its nuclear facilities and allow inspections, a South Korean official said in New York, where envoys from Pyongyang and Washington are set to begin rare talks on improving ties.

North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan has been on a visit to the United States since Thursday, becoming the highest-ranking official to do so since 2000.

"I don't think there's any doubt about the North's readiness to execute the initial steps," South Korean envoy Chun Yung-woo was quoted as saying in New York, referring to measures Pyongyang has agreed to on shutting down its nuclear activities.

"The North has agreed to the initial steps and has the intention to fully do its part," Chun was quoted as saying by South Korean media after he met Kim at a hotel on Saturday.

Chun, South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, is accompanying Foreign Minister Song Ming-soon's visit to the United States.

In Beijing, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said he hoped Pyongyang would not delay in fulfilling its commitments but declined to comment further.

"I would be reluctant to give you an assessment as to whether they have begun activity leading to the shutdown or not," he told a news conference.

Highest-level meeting in U.S. since 2000

Kim is scheduled to meet U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill on Monday to discuss improving ties.

It will be the highest-level meeting on U.S. soil since a top military officer and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's special envoy, Jo Myong Rok, visited Washington in 2000.

That was followed by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's visit to Pyongyang and eased tensions -- until George W. Bush took office in 2001 and labeled North Korea as part of an "axis of evil".

In a breakthrough February 13 agreement in Beijing, North Korea agreed with South Korea, the United States, and three other countries to shut down within 60 days its nuclear facilities and allow inspectors in return for 50,000 tons of fuel oil.

Further steps to completely "disable" its nuclear weapons program will entitle the energy-strapped state to another 950,000 tons of oil or other forms of aid of equivalent value.

North Korea is also set to hold similar discussions with Japan in Hanoi next week, and separate meetings on energy aid are planned among the six countries in the international talks, which include China, Russia and Japan.

Negroponte said that the working group on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, one of five working groups to be set up under the February 13 agreement, would begin its work imminently.

"It's a matter of days, not weeks," he said of the group, which will be chaired by China.

On March 13, International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamed ElBaradei will be in Pyongyang to discuss the mechanics of North Korea's deal to close down its nuclear program and readmit inspectors from the U.N. watchdog.

North Korea probe turns to banks

Source: CNN.

HONG KONG, China (AP) -- A U.S. Treasury Department delegation worked Monday to resolve sanctions against a Macau bank accused of helping North Korea launder money -- a key condition in the North's agreement to give up its nuclear weapons program.

The meeting with Macau officials came about two weeks after North Korea agreed in six-nation talks to take initial steps to abandon its nuclear weapons program in return for aid. Washington agreed on the meeting's sidelines to settle the financial sanctions by mid-March.

On Monday, Dale Kreisher, spokesman at the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong, declined to say whether Washington was ready to lift the sanctions on Banco Delta Asia, accused of helping North Korea's money laundering and counterfeiting.

But Kreisher, whose office is responsible for Macau, told The Associated Press, "Discussions (with North Korea) along with the U.S. investigation have brought Treasury to the point where they think they can begin taking steps to resolve the BDA matter."

Washington slapped restrictions on Banco Delta Asia in 2005 and put it on a money-laundering blacklist. This prompted Macau to freeze about US$24 million at the bank. Consequently, banks worldwide shunned North Korean business for fears of losing access to American markets.

Many believe the sanctions dealt a severe blow to cash-strapped North Korea, which denied the allegations and boycotted the six-nation nuclear talks over the issue for a year.

Banco Delta Asia has said that money might have been laundered at the bank, but added there is no evidence the institution was aware of it. The bank said it is small, family-owned, and didn't have the technology to check big batches of U.S. currency for fake bills.

The bank also said it used a dated computer system and that it didn't pay enough attention to maintaining its own books. It has also said the bank didn't have adequate written anti-money-laundering policies for its staff.

Macau was a Portuguese enclave before it returned to Chinese rule in 1999. The territory -- the only place in China where casinos are legal -- recently displaced the Las Vegas Strip as the world's most lucrative gaming center.