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SEOUL : A senior US official in charge of financial sanctions on North Korea has been visiting South Korea for talks on non-proliferation, a foreign ministry official said Friday.
The official said Daniel Glaser, deputy assistant secretary of the treasury for terrorist financing and financial crimes, arrived Wednesday for a visit ending Friday along with Steven Mull, a senior Foreign Service officer.
"They met with foreign ministry officials and other authorities concerned to discuss the issue of non-proliferation," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Yonhap news agency quoted a diplomatic source as saying the talks concerned financial sanctions against North Korea.
The North demands the removal of United Nations sanctions before it returns to six-party nuclear disarmament talks. It also insists that the United States agree to start talks about a permanent peace treaty before the nuclear forum resumes.
The United States says the North must come back to the nuclear talks and reaffirm commitment to agreements on disarmament before other matters are discussed.
US officials have led a drive to enforce the tougher UN sanctions imposed on the North last June following its nuclear and missile tests.
These include closer inspections of cargo suspected of containing banned missile and nuclear-related items, a tighter arms embargo and targeted financial curbs to choke off revenue for Pyongyang's nuclear and missile sectors.
Several banned shipments of weaponry from the North have been seized since then.
In the latest reported case South Africa last month told the Security Council that it recently seized a shipment of North Korean spare parts for tanks that were bound for Congo.
- AFP/vm
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