North Korea confirms bank transfer problems - Singapore's Online Community

**toh_3312** · 25-04-2007, 01:54 PM

SEOUL : North Korea has confirmed that problems in transferring its cash from a Macau bank are delaying settlement of a long-running dispute which is blocking progress on a nuclear disarmament deal.

But South Korea said the row over the accounts, which had been frozen in Banco Delta Asia (BDA) at US instigation, is close to being settled.

"There have been no results yet. We have to see them," Kim Myong-Gil, deputy head of the North Korean delegation to the United Nations, told Yonhap news agency Tuesday in a telephone interview about the BDA funds.

"Transfer (to other banks) must become possible," Yonhap quoted him saying in a report on Wednesday.

Asked whether the United States has promised to make the transfer possible, Kim replied: "That was agreed upon from the beginning."

The North, which tested a nuclear bomb last October, missed an April 14 deadline to start shutting down its nuclear programme under a six-nation accord reached in February.

It has always said it will only make the first move once it receives the 25 million dollars which had been frozen in BDA since 2005 on suspicion of money-laundering and counterfeiting.

Macau's financial authorities have unblocked the funds and the United States has said they are available for collection.

Analysts believe other foreign banks are reluctant to accept the transferred cash because it is seen as tainted.

They say that apart from just recovering the money from BDA, North Korea wants to ensure that its access to the international financial system has been restored.

South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon said the dispute was almost settled.

"There still exist various procedural matters to sort out and the efforts to resolve them are near the final stage," he told reporters.

"All the participants in the six-party talks are determined to implement the February 13 agreement," Song said.

He said he would meet US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to discuss the North Korean nuclear issue on the sidelines of an international conference on Iraq in Egypt next month.

South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator Chun Yung-Woo left Monday for the United States for talks with his counterpart Christopher Hill on the bank row.

Yonhap said a senior White House official hurried to New York on Tuesday for discussions with North Korean diplomats on the same issue.

Victor Cha, director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council, cancelled a Washington appointment at the last minute and headed for New York where North Korea's UN mission is situated, it quoted a source as saying.

On Sunday, South Korea agreed to resume its annual 400,000 tons of rice aid to the North, but said shipments would be conditional on Pyongyang moving to shut down its nuclear programme. - AFP/ch