SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea said Tuesday that steps were being taken to
resolve a financial dispute that has blocked international efforts to halt its
production of nuclear weapons in an indication of possible progress after weeks
of delay.
US Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow delivers a
speech during a security forum in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, May 15,
2007. [AP]
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North Korea has refused to start implementing a February agreement to shut
down its nuclear reactor - missing a deadline that passed a month ago - until it
receives funds from a bank in the Chinese territory of Macau that had been
frozen after the bank was blacklisted by the United States in 2005.
North Korea's Foreign Ministry said it wanted to be able to "freely transfer
funds."
"For this, works are under way so that funds at Macau's Banco Delta Asia can
be transferred to our bank accounts at a third country," the ministry said in a
statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
The transfer has been held up because other banks have been reluctant to
touch the $25 million in accounts that were freed with the blessing of the
United States.
Washington has said the money was tied to alleged money laundering and
counterfeiting by North Korea. Authorities say North Korea could withdraw the
sum in cash, but it apparently wants to retrieve it through a bank wire transfer
to prove the funds are now clean.
North Korea made the release of the money its main condition for halting its
nuclear program, boycotting international arms negotiations for more than a year
during which it conducted a weapons test in October.
On Tuesday, North Korea rebutted allegations it said were made in US media
that it had been using the funds dispute as a delaying tactic, and it repeated
its commitment to the disarmament deal.
"Once the fund transfer is realized we are willing to immediately take steps
to shut down our nuclear facility as agreed," the ministry said, adding it would
invite U.N. nuclear inspectors and discuss the matter with the US
"Once the Feb. 13 agreement gets implemented, our commitment will be clearly
shown through our actions," the ministry said.
Earlier Tuesday, the US ambassador to South Korea called on the North to act
on its pledge.
"It's time for North Korea to live up to its commitments," Alexander Vershbow
told a security forum in Seoul. "The North has a lot to gain by ending its
nuclear programs and getting rid of nuclear weapons."
Rewards include "economic assistance, normalized relations with the United
States and a permanent peace regime for the Korean peninsula. ... In short, a
fundamental transformation of the (North's) relations with the rest of the world
and an end to its pariah status," he said.
The February deal calls for closing the reactor and disabling all of North
Korea's nuclear facilities. Vershbow said Washington believes the action can be
done in a "few months" and it hopes to achieve a complete denuclearization of
North Korea before President Bush leaves office in January 2009.
In Vienna, Gregory L. Schulte, the chief US envoy to the International Atomic
Energy Agency, said inspectors "are standing by to return to North Korea on
short notice."
The IAEA itself had no comment.