N Korean funds freed
2007-04-10 18:11
Seoul - The United States said on Tuesday that Macau authorities have unblocked funds in frozen North Korean accounts, and told Pyongyang it must now start shutting down a nuclear reactor days before a deadline.
The reclusive state has insisted it will only close the
reactor, which supplies it with weapons-grade plutonium, once
$25m in funds linked to North Korean interests and frozen since 2005 in Macau's Banco Delta Asia are freed.
Under an international deal agreed two months ago to end
its nuclear weapons programme, North Korea has until Saturday to
start shutting down its Yongbyon atomic plant.
"I will let the Macanese authorities speak to how they want
to put it, but the bottom line is that they have unblocked these
accounts and the account holders can - authorised account
holders can - withdraw the funds from those accounts," US
State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said in Washington.
A Macau Monetary Authority official said only that there
would be an announcement of some kind within a "few days".
The funds were frozen after Washington accused the Macau
bank of being involved in money laundering.
Furious that the money still had not been freed, North
Korea walked out of a round of six-country talks on its nuclear
programme in March, five months after its first atomic test.
'Now we need to move on'
The US announcement came as top US officials visited
both sides of the divided Korean peninsula.
"I think we've reached a very important day today with the
imminent release of these funds," chief US nuclear negotiator
Chris Hill said in Seoul.
"Now we need to move on from this banking issue to the real
purpose of our February agreement, which is to get on with
denuclearisation."