U.S. and Macau (2006)

U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing

Sean McCormack, Spokesman
Washington, DC
February 17, 2006

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: Yesterday in a statement, Banco Delta-Asia announced it has officially closed all of its accounts with North Korea in relation to their implementation of new money laundering policies and procedures. Has the State Department had any reaction to this or have they heard anything from North Korea?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, we -- the North Koreans have talked about this issue in public quite a bit. As for contact with Banco Delta-Asia, I don't have the latest for you. I know that -- I do know that they were quite concerned about this issue and that they were talking to us, as well as others, about what remedial steps they might take.

Look. The United States is going to take steps to protect itself. In this case, it's going to take steps to protect its currency. I think that any -- you would expect any country around the world to do just that. So, we'll continue to do so and as for the attempt to make a connection with the six-party talks, it's just not there. These are completely separate issues and we encourage North Korea to return to the six-party talks at the earliest possible date, engage in a serious way without precondition.

Yes.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

(The briefing was concluded at 1:30 p.m.)