'U.S. may freeze N. Korean assets in foreign banks'

The United States Wednesday did not preclude the possibility of freezing North Korean assets in foreign banks to effectively cut off resources for the North's development and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, 

"I'm not going to predict any particular step that we're contemplating, but these are steps that are available to us under existing U.S. international law," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley was quoted by the wire as saying in Washington.

He was responding to the question if Washington was considering freezing North Korean assets at foreign banks just like it froze more than US$25 million in North Korean accounts in Banco Delta Asia in Macau in 2005,