NKorea blames US for nuclear talks impasse

SEOUL, Dec 23: North Korea's official media today placed the blame for an impasse in talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme squarely at the feet of the United States.

North Korea, which faces UN sanctions for defying warnings and conducting its first nuclear test in October, remained focused at this week's talks on demands that the United States end a separate crackdown on its international banking.

''We clarified our will to realise denuclearisation at the talks and participated in them despite sanctions,'' its KCNA news agency cited the North's nuclear envoy as saying yesterday.

Delegate Kim Kye-gwan said the United States for its part demanded Pyongyang end its nuclear programme and accept inspections of its nuclear facilities.

''We decisively opposed this and told the US side to further study our proposal,'' Kim was quoted as saying.

The talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States ended yesterday with the envoys failing to even reach a date for the next round.

Throughout the five days of talks, envoys said, North Korea dwelt on little more than the freeze on its accounts at Macau's Banco Delta Asia, which Washington alleges abetted Pyongyang's money-laundering and dollar counterfeiting.

North Korea said the financial curbs, which resulted from the US Treasury's September 15, 2005, designation of Banco Delta Asia as a ''primary money-laundering concern,'' showed that Washington had negotiated in bad faith.

The crackdown, which froze just 24 million dollars in funds, has had wide implications for North Korea because it has scared other international banks away from doing business with Pyongyang.

Washington maintains that the nuclear talks and the financial crackdown are separate issues and should not be confused.

But South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun appeared to sympathise with the North Koreans' position, asking this week why the US Treasury would move just days before the six parties struck a deal where Pyongyang agreed to scrap its nuclear weapons programme in exchange for aid and security guarantees.

''If one wants to look at it in a bad light, one may say it was all coordinated between the two (the US State and Treasury Departments),'' Roh said in a speech.

South Korea's envoy said he wanted to see the six-party talks, which have been going on for more than three years with little concrete results, continue because they contribute to peace in the region, Yonhap news agency reported today.

The mainstream daily JoongAng Ilbo agreed, but cautioned Pyongyang against dragging its heels.

''If North Korea holds its ground obstinately, it will only face more serious isolation and pain,'' it said in an editorial.

A Chinese paper said both Pyongyang and Washington would need to give ground.

''More flexibility is needed from the DPRK and the United States to make the talks really meaningful rather than a marathon event,'' the official English-language China Daily said in a commentary.

REUTERS

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