U.S. and Macau (2006)

U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing

Tom Casey, Acting Spokesman
Washington, DC
March 6, 2006

12:45 p.m. EST

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QUESTION: Do you have any details on the meeting tomorrow in New York with the North Koreans? Who's going to be attending on the U.S. side? And is it the hope of the United States that once this briefing has taken place on counterfeiting, the door will be reopened to the resumption of the six-party talks?

MR. CASEY: Well, I think first of all, the door is not closed to the resumption of the six-party talks. We're ready to go back today and we believe that the talks should start up again as soon as possible and we'd certainly encourage the North Koreans to make that decision. As you know, what's going to happen tomorrow in New York is that an interagency team led by the Department of Treasury is going to provide a briefing for the North Korean delegation on recent U.S. actions to counter illicit financial activities linked to North Korea and, in particular, Treasury's designation last September of Banco Delta Asia as a "primary money laundering concern." This has all been done under the Patriot Act.

The main lead for the State Department on this is going to be Kathy Stevens, who is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. You know, this really is an opportunity for us to explain to the North Koreans simply how our law works and the kinds of actions that we took against Banco Delta Asia as part of that legal requirement. But you know, again it's not related to the six-party talks, and we think that regardless of this briefing and regardless of anything else that the North Koreans ought to come back to those talks as soon as is possible.

QUESTION: Will you be discussing the six-party talks within the context of the counterfeiting discussions?

MR. CASEY: Again, this is basically going to be a technical level briefing, principally provided by Treasury officials to talk about U.S. law enforcement steps, so it's not a meeting to discuss six-party talks.

George.

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(The briefing was concluded at 1:22 p.m.)