U.S. and Macau (2006)

U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing

Tom Casey, Acting Spokesman
Washington, DC
March 10, 2006

12:45 p.m. EST

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: Yes. The United States believes and it seems to have evidence that the -- North Korea is counterfeiting the U.S. currency. Has the U.S. ever presented any evidence of any kind to the members of the six-party talks?

MR. CASEY: Well, first of all, the issue of implementation of U.S. laws related to initial illicit financial transactions is an issue that it outside of the framework of the six-party talks. Obviously, the six-party talks is designed to address North Korea's nuclear program.

As you know, we have briefed many countries on our actions related to the implementation of the Patriot Act, including as it relates to Banco Delta Asia. That is very much the same kind of briefing that we provided via the Treasury Department to the North Korean delegation in New York a little while ago. But this is not an issue that, as far as I know of, has ever come up in the context of the six-party talks.

QUESTION: Because of legal -- and they're saying that North Koreans officers requested any evidence from United States. Are you presenting any evidence to the them and --

MR. CASEY: Well, again, we had no plans to present evidence at the March 7 meeting. The purpose of that briefing was to explain what our recent regulatory actions were. And again, I want to stress that these actions are unrelated to the six-party talks or to North Korea's nuclear program. I don't think any country takes a favorable attitude towards money laundering or counterfeiting or other kinds of illicit financial measures.

What we did with respect to Banco Delta Asia, again, is simply a law enforcement action and it's designed to protect our financial system from abuse and from having counterfeit currency placed in it.

Yeah, Teri.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

(The briefing was concluded at 1:06 p.m.)