US may not renew offer of aid for disarming
Pyongyang is urged to resume nuclear talks; told deal isn't on the table forever
Washington's chief negotiator on North Korea took a hard line in Seoul yesterday on investigations into Pyongyang's financial affairs, and warned that proposed aid in return for progress on dismantling nuclear weapons would not stay on the table indefinitely.
Christopher Hill, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, was asked during a speech whether the US might investigate the US$4 billion that analysts believe North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has stashed in Swiss bank accounts. He said: 'If a country pulls out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, starts processing plutonium, announces it is going to make weapons and has ballistic missiles, it is fair to say that country is going to have its finances scrutinised.'
The former ambassador to South Korea, on a regional tour aimed at getting stalled six-party nuclear talks back on track, added: 'That's life in the big city.'
In discussions in Tokyo earlier this week, North Korea gave no indication that it was willing to return to the problematic talks.
Mr Hill warned the North that a September 2005 offer of aid in return for nuclear disarmament was not indefinite. 'It may not be a deal they will have to consider forever,' he said.
He remained combative on Pyongyang's nuclear programmes. 'We've got a country that, for 25 years, has run a reactor that has not powered a single light bulb,' he said. 'It's not about energy, it's about making bombs.'
Noting that North Korea was refusing to return to talks until what it calls 'financial sanctions' against it were lifted - a reference to investigations into alleged money laundering at Macau-based Banco Delta Asia which has frozen US$20 million in North Korean accounts - Mr Hill said that North Korea stood to receive, if there was progress in talks, energy aid worth hundreds of millions of dollars, as laid out in the September proposal. 'Why are they holding up the talks for the sake of US$20 million?' he asked.
Some analysts say Washington, faced with reluctance by Beijing and Seoul to impose sanctions on North Korea, has found the 'stick' it needs - in the form of action against Pyongyang's international hard-currency operations. They believe Mr Kim requires large amounts of cash to maintain the patronage of Pyongyang's elite.
In Tokyo yesterday, North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan, said Pyongyang would not budge on the Macau bank issue. 'There is no compromise and flexibility. I will go to the negotiating table the moment I seize the assets with my hands,' he said.
Mr Kim also warned that Pyongyang would use the delay in resuming nuclear talks to bolster its military 'deterrent force', a phrase it often uses to refer to its purported nuclear weapons.
'It's not bad that the resumption of nuclear talks is delayed. During that period, we will make more deterrent force,' he said.
North Korea has said it has atomic weapons, although the claim has not been verified independently.
Mr Hill also addressed President Hu Jintao's trip to Washington next week, implying it would not be smooth sailing. China's 'unusually large' merchandise trade surplus with the US was 'hard to sustain in political terms', he said.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
