By Park Song-wu
Staff Reporter
Washington’s top envoy to Seoul reconfirmed Friday that the U.S. administration will not negotiate with North Korea over its financial sanctions on the Pyongyang regime.

Alexander Vershbow, however, expressed regret over a ``lively debate’’ that took place in South Korea due to his calling of North Korea a ``criminal regime.’’

``We don’t negotiate over the enforcement of our law,’’ Vershbow told South Korean reporters at his residence in central Seoul. ``But we are prepared to inform the North Koreans as to how our law operates.’’

The U.S. offered a working-level briefing in New York on Section 311 of the USA Patriot Act and actions taken in response to North Korea’s alleged counterfeiting activities.

But North Korea is boycotting the six-party denuclearization talks, arguing that the U.S. is ``avoiding’’ a high-level meeting, designed to discuss Washington’s financial sanctions on the communist state.

Vershbow said that now the venue of the briefing is not an issue.

``If North Koreans would rather not come to New York for the briefing, we could consider other locations or they can have the briefing on the margins of the next sessions of the six-party talks,’’ he said.

The U.S. regulators exercised Section 311 in September on the Banco Delta Asia in Macao for its alleged role in North Korean counterfeiting and money laundering. As a result, the bank announced that it was closing all the accounts of North Korean clients.

In a related development, the U.S. State Department was scheduled to host a briefing session for foreign diplomats in Washington on Friday over North Korea’s illicit activities, such as money laundering.

A councilor-level South Korean official will attend it, but no North Korean officials will take part in the session, diplomatic sources in Seoul said.

As for evidence of Pyongyang’s involvement in financial illegalities, Vershbow mentioned the recent arrest of Sean Garland, head of the communist Workers Party of Ireland, who provided the first confirmation of North Korea’s links to so-called supernote.

The discovery was a part of a 16-year-old probe by the U.S. Secret Service, which is in charge of investigating illegal money production, the Washington Times reported on Dec. 2.

Vershbow said North Korea’s illicit activities and human rights abuses led Washington to voice its concerns publicly.

``I think it would be surprising if the U.S. government, under this administration or any other administration, did not voice its concerns publicly about these kinds of problems,’’ he said.

But the U.S. envoy expressed regret over his recent labeling of North Korea as a ``criminal regime.’’

``It was not my intention to stir up a lively debate in Korea, surrounding these issues,’’ Vershbow said. ``What I wanted to and continue to aim to do is to focus attention on these issues so that we can collectively find a common strategy to deal with these problems and ultimately eliminate these problems.’’

In Seoul on Dec. 7, he said that North Korea is a ``criminal regime’’ and the U.S. cannot remove sanctions as a political gesture when the regime is engaging in dangerous activities such as weapons exports to other rogue states.

He said North Korea’s change of practices and willingness to discuss its human rights situation will ``influence the pace of normalization’’ with the U.S.

im@koreatimes.co.kr