North Korea has agreed to hold discussions with the United States on allegations that the isolated Asian country has engaged in counterfeiting and money laundering activities, the State Department said Thursday. The U.S. allegations led to U.S. sanctions on the country and a subsequent breakdown in nuclear talks. North Korean officials are to attend a March 7 briefing by the U.S. Treasury on the financial sanctions imposed by Washington, the department said. "We had an offer on the table for some time to the North Koreans to come for a briefing on actions that we have taken in response to illicit financial activities. They have agreed to do that," deputy department spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters. The meeting, which is set to be held in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations, will also be attended by State Department and National Security Council officials. The United States has no diplomatic ties with North Korea but the country has a representative at the United Nations who handles U.S.-North Korean discussion. The meeting will be "about what steps we've taken, why we've taken them, the laws that pertain and to see if we can clarify, maybe, some of the questions that North Korea has," Ereli said. The U.S. Treasury Department announced in September that U.S. financial institutions should stop dealing with a Macau bank, Banco Delta Asia, which it accused of being a front for North Korea's illicit financial activities. A month later the United States blacklisted eight North Korean companies allegedly involved in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The United States says Banco Delta Asia helped North Korea launder earnings from counterfeiting U.S. bank notes, drug trafficking, smuggling cigarettes and other illegal activities. North Korea has conditioned the resumption of negotiations over its nuclear program on the lifting of the sanction. Pyongyang argues that the measures breached the spirit of a September pact agreed upon at the nuclear talks, in which North Korea committed in principle to disband its atomic weapons program in return for economic and diplomatic benefits.
