Diplomat: NKorea nuke talks deadlocked
International talks seeking to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons are deadlocked, Japan’s envoy said Thursday, with the communist nation refusing to disarm until U.S. financial restrictions are lifted. After four days of six-nation negotiations — the first since North Korea’s Oct. 9 nuclear test — the country’s delegation has refused substantive discussions on its atomic weapons, envoys said. Instead, the North has complained about the U.S. blacklisting a Macau bank where the regime had accounts for its complicity in alleged North Korean counterfeiting and money laundering to help fund its weapons programs. Full Story