http://asia.news.yahoo.com/070110/kyodo/d8mi3km83.html
Wednesday January 10, 8:58 AM
U.S. airs worry about Iran-N. Korea financial links
(Kyodo) _ A top U.S. Treasury official expressed misgivings Tuesday on the development of financial links between Iran and North Korea, saying they could lead to proliferation of missile technology and weapons of mass destruction.
Stuart Levey, treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, told a news conference that Iran's state-owned Bank Sepah had facilitated business between Iran's Aerospace Industries Organization and North Korea's alleged missile-related exporter, the Korean Mining and Industrial Development Corp.
"There's a real concern there...one would have to be concerned about these sorts of links between North Korean proliferators and Iranian proliferators and the financial intermediaries who might be handling that business," Levey said.
He made the comment in announcing that the Treasury has blocked the Iranian bank's access to the U.S. financial system because of its alleged support for developing missiles.
Levey declined to confirm any dates for a second round of talks between the United States and North Korea on U.S. financial restrictions on Pyongyang.
North Korea has demanded the financial curbs be removed before discussing the scrapping of its nuclear weapons program. The United States denies any linkage between the two issues, however. Officials from the two countries met in Beijing in December, in parallel with six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear issue, to talk about the sanctions imposed in response to North Korea's alleged counterfeiting of U.S. currency and money laundering. They scheduled to hold another meeting.
The six-way negotiations ended without an agreement on nuclear disarmament or a date for further talks, as a result of North Korea's refusal to discuss the nuclear issue unless the financial sanctions were lifted.
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