US's Hill in HK for briefs on NKorea funds freeze

Hong Kong, Oct 22: Assistant US Secretary of State Christopher Hill is in Hong Kong for briefings by consulate staff on the freezing of North Korean funds in Macau and possibly other meetings, a consulate spokesman said today.

Hill, the chief U.S. envoy for North Korean affairs, arrived yesterday after accompanying Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing for crisis talks in the wake of North Korea's test of a nuclear device on October 9.

Last year, the US Treasury Department said Macau's Banco Delta Asia was involved in illicit North Korean activities and froze some 20 million dollars of the North's funds in the bank. Pyongyang has denied involvement in any such activities and demanded that the freeze be lifted.

''It is a good opportunity to get an update on the situation here and I'll be getting a briefing on some of the issues that have taken place in Macau,'' the South China Morning Post quoted Hill as saying.

The US consulate in Hong Kong also covers the former Portugese colony of Macau, on the south China coast about an hour's jetfoil ride away.

A consulate spokesman said Hill might hold other meetings in Hong Kong in a private capacity. A spokeswoman for the Hong Kong government said she had no details of Hill's trip because it had not been arranged by the government.

Hill said the United States was imposing no new preconditions on talks with North Korea, but continued to insist that Pyongyang return to six-party talks and implement last year's agreement to dismantle its nuclear arms programme.

''All they have to do is tell us they will be there,'' the newspaper quoted him as saying.

''We are not making preconditions. Everyone understands the purpose is to implement the agreement ... We are looking forward to getting on with it.'' The Post said 2.67 million dollar linked to North Korean counterfeiting had been seized in Hong Kong, a former British colony under Chinese rule since July 1997, but it gave no details.

Hill would leave tomorrow, the consulate spokesman said.

Reuters