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Signaling hopes for a much-needed breakthrough in six-nation negotiations on stripping North Korea of its nuclear weapons, financial officials from the U.S. and North Korea are set to open a new round of talks in Beijing this week to discuss U.S. sanctions on the communist nation.

Washington insists its sanctions on Pyongyang over the latter's illicit financial activities have nothing to do with the nuclear disarmament talks, but the financial dispute has long hobbled the nuclear negotiations.

Beijing, host of the six-way talks, is expected to announce the date for a fresh round following the start of the financial discussions between the U.S. and North Korea on Tuesday, according to South Korean officials close to the nuclear talks.

Daniel Glaser, Washington's chief envoy to the financial talks with North Korea, arrived in Beijing Sunday amid reports that the United States may be considering a partial lifting of its sanctions on the communist nation. The U.S. Treasury Department blacklisted a Macau bank in September 2005, accusing it of aiding North Korea's illegal activities, such as counterfeiting and money laundering. The measure prompted the Macau bank, Banco Delta Asia (BDA), to freeze all of its North Korean assets, worth some US$24 million in 50 accounts. Reports over the weekend said the Treasury may be considering unfreezing about $13 million worth of the North Korean funds.

U.S. officials are refusing to call the financial talks a negotiation process, saying the meeting would only involve "discussions," not concessions.

Seoul officials also refused to call this week's financial talks a prerequisite to resuming the nuclear negotiations, but they said any progress in the expected round of six-party talks would depend on progress, or U.S. concessions, in the financial discussions.

"The BDA issue is a technical issue" being discussed by financial experts, Foreign Minister Song Min-soon told a press briefing last week.

However, he called on the U.S. and North Korea to narrow their gaps on the financial issue, saying "one side of the financial dispute affects" progress in the nuclear negotiations.

The nuclear talks resumed late last year after a 13-month hiatus but they yielded little progress as North Korean negotiators refused to discuss the nuclear issue, only sticking to their country's demand that the U.S. first remove its financial sanctions on the communist nation.

Financial officials from the U.S. and North Korea last met on the sidelines of the December round of the nuclear talks.

The six-party negotiations involve the two Koreas, the U.S., Japan, China and Russia.

Seoul, Jan. 29 (Yonhap News)