U.S. promises to drop financial sanctions against N. Korea: N. Korean nuclear envoy

Posted on : 2007-03-10 15:09 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST

The United States has promised North Korea that it would end financial sanctions against the communist state, the North's chief nuclear envoy said Saturday.

"The U.S. has promised the North it would scrap financial sanctions on the Banco Delta Asia and the North is keeping a close eye on the promise," Kim Kye-gwan told reporters at Beijing Shoudu Airport before taking a flight to Pyongyang.

"If the U.S. fails to solve the issue completely, we will have to take partial actions against it," Kim said.

Kim was leaving Beijing after meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei to prepare for a fresh round of denuclearization talks on the North's nuclear disarmament on March 19. He also briefed Wu on the outcome of his U.S.-North Korea normalization talks in New York on Monday to Tuesday with Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. envoy to the six-party negotiations.

In the normalization talks, both sides also agreed to resolve issues surrounding the designation of North Korea as a terrorism-sponsoring state and the application of the U.S. Trading with the Enemy Act, Kim said.

"We agreed to resolve the issues based on our strategic interests and normalize ties between North Korea and the U.S.," Kim said. "On those two items, there still are diplomatic issues between us."

Beijing, March 10 (Yonhap News)