North Korea and Banks

This little story I find interesting for personal reasons:

North Korean nuclear envoy Kim Kye-gwan warned on Saturday that if the United States failed to lift financial sanctions against it, his country would have to take "corresponding actions" in response.

Washington had promised to look into easing financial sanctions within 30 days of a February 13 agreement that offers North Korea millions of dollars in energy aid and improved security in return for steps on dismantling its nuclear facilities.

"The U.S. has promised to lift the Banco Delta Asia financial sanctions, so we are closely watching developments," Kim told reporters at Beijing airport on his return journey to North Korea from talks in the United States.

"If the U.S. fails to lift all of the sanctions, we cannot help but to partially take corresponding actions," he said.

A decade ago a North Korean company tried to open a letter of credit to us to buy some aluminium from Russia. Their own bank, the State bank, refused them the credit. When a government can't actually borrow a couple of hundred thousand dollars, you know there are serious problems.