The U.S. Department of Treasury plans to send Daniel Glaser, deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury Department who handles financial sanctions against North Korea, to Macao on March 17 and present concrete material evidence on BDA’s illegal activities to the Macao government. He intends to persuade the Chinese and Macao governments which expressed deep regrets about the U.S. decision to impose sanctions, that they are justified.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack emphasized in a briefing on March 15 that “We need to get all kinds of accumulated information through forensics and analysis in order for the Macao government to make a decision.” It seems that the forensics to be presented will be the research results on ‘supernotes,’ ultra-precise 100-dollar bill forgeries, and data on how BDA closely worked with North Korea’s Danchon Commercial Bank, which has been involved in WMD deals such as missiles.

Even though Danchon bank was listed as a company which was involved in WMD sales by the U.S. in June 2005, BDA worked with Danchon Bank up to three days before the sanctions were imposed in September 2005.

In case the U.S. presents the aforementioned contents case by case, the Macao authorities, which want to release 24 million dollars in North Korean accounts and save BDA, cannot help but feel pressed. BDA is small and ranks fourth from the bottom in the local financial circles, and the Macao authorities are concerned about the aftermath of a liquidation of the bank on its financial system. If control over the North Korean account is partially removed, dealing with the rest of the money could be a nuisance after the BDA’s liquidation.

The reason why the Chinese government rebelled against the U.S. Treasury Department’s announcement can be understood in that context. However, diplomatic sources analyze that China’s behavior and what they have in mind are different. That means that the U.S. and China have already come to an agreement in a broad context on that issue.

That Assistant Secretary Christopher Hill said confidently in Beijing on March 17, “Frankly speaking, I think the issue of the BDA has been addressed. It will not have any negative impact on the six-way talks,” supports such analysis.

China is not happy with the fact that the U.S. has closed the issue by handing it off to the Macao Authorities, but is satisfied with the resolution of a big barrier to the six-party talks. Nonetheless, the reason why China has expressed strong regret is that they have to be conscious of North Korea and they want to receive more concessions from the U.S.