The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon walks hand in hand with the United Nations head of the UN Habitat in Nairobi, Anna Tibaijuka, right, during a visit to the Kibera Slums in Nairobi, Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2007. Ban will discuss with U.N. and Kenyan officials a possible emergency summit of world leaders aimed at breaking a deadlock over cutting greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, officials said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim)



US and North Korea Begin BDA Talks from Jan. 30

American BDA working-level officials arrived in Beijing on January 28 to resume the second round of BDA discussions with their North Korean counterparts over the North’s alleged illegal financial transactions at the bank in Macau. Soon after the financial talks, the six-party talks will resume negotiating North Korean nuclear issues.

According to a source, this upcoming BDA meeting will be a special one where financial specialists from both countries will participate. The focus is to clarify whether the North has conducted illegal financial transactions at the bank in Macau. The US will present the information it has collected to prove the North’s illegal transactions, and the North will give its explanations in turn.

The source added that both countries will exchange fire over issues such as counterfeiting US dollars and money laundering. A US source says that Washington believes that, excluding a few legal accounts, 50 accounts frozen at BDA by the US are illegal. The source says that the illegal accounts are twenty accounts opened by a North Korean bank, eleven accounts by a trading company, and nine private accounts.

The important point is the extent to which the North will acknowledge and promise to prevent those illegal financial transactions. A Korean government source says, “If the North takes a flexible stance during the meeting, the US will try to release some frozen accounts in a first phase, and then conclude the BDA probe on the basis of political foundations.”

Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon, in an interview with YTN, said, “Even though the two sides are approaching the issue from different angles, there could be a big compromise that would contribute to progress at the BDA meeting. I believe so because both sides have a strong intent to conclude at this time”
/ 입력시간: 2007. 01.31. 09:42