WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. and North Korean officials will meet next month in New York to discuss a rift over Pyongyang"s alleged counterfeiting of American dollars, an issue that has contributed to North Korea"s boycott of nuclear disarmament discussions.
At the March 7 meeting, U.S. technical experts will brief a Foreign Ministry delegation from Pyongyang on U.S. laws that were applied when Washington imposed sanctions several months ago in response to counterfeiting and other U.S. allegations.

State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said Thursday the purpose of the briefing "is to respond to issues and concerns that the North Koreans have raised with regard to our actions."

He said the decision to apply sanctions was unrelated to the six-party nuclear disarmament process.

The North has denied the U.S. allegations and has ruled out participation in a new round until the sanctions are lifted. But North Korea"s U.N. ambassador, Pak Gil Yon, said at a reception Wednesday night in New York that resumption of the talks "fully depends on the U.S.," according to South Korea"s Yonhap news agency.

The U.S. allegations of counterfeiting have not been endorsed by South Korea. A top intelligence official in Seoul has said there is no evidence of any such activity by the North since 1998.

In Seoul on Thursday, a South Korean opposition lawmaker showed colleagues and government officials what he said was a forged $100 bill allegedly bought from a company run by North Korea in the Chinese border city of Dandong.

Last year, the U.S. slapped restrictions on a Macau bank and North Korean companies it said were involved in illicit activity, including counterfeiting, money laundering and funding weapons proliferation.

Months ago, the United States offered to brief North Korea on the legal rationale for the sanctions but the North dismissed the proposal. The decision to send a delegation to New York for talks suggests a policy change by the North.

Only rarely over the years has a senior North Korean official come to the United States for official discussions. Li Gun, chief of the Foreign Ministry"s North American division, will lead his country"s delegation to the March talks.

Taking part for the United States will be experts from the State and Treasury departments and the National Security Council.

The six parties involved in negotiations — the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia — have not met since November.

Little has happened to inspire optimism over the process since September, when each party agreed in Beijing that the goal of the discussions was denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea is believed by U.S. officials to have possessed one or two nuclear weapons for years, with the capability to produce more.