The chief U.S. negotiator to the six-party nuclear talks says North Korea is losing 20 million dollars a week by refusing to return to the multilateral nuclear discussions.

Christopher Hill told a Tuesday forum in Washington that North Korea stands to gain that amount of money in energy aid alone in return for abandoning its nuclear weapons under an agreement reached in September last year.

The U.S. government froze 20 million dollars in Pyongyang’s deposits, accusing Pyongyang of counterfeiting American currency.

Hill said he is willing to meet with North Korean officials if Pyongyang returns to the nuclear negotiating table.

Hill also said that U.S. and South Korean embassies are working hard to include South Korea in the American visa waiver program, calling the success of the project one of his personal goals.

On the strategic flexibility of U.S. forces stationed in Korea and the transfer of wartime operational command to Seoul, Hill called for recognizing differences between the situations in Asia and Europe and said that the matters can be solved.

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