Hope alive on North Korea's nuclear deadline
Pyongyang has delayed disarmament over access to bank funds, which reportedly is now being granted.
PYONGYANG, North Korea - A U.S. nuclear negotiator expressed hope yesterday that North Korea could still meet a weekend deadline for taking initial steps toward dismantling its nuclear program, as a Bush administration official warned that time was running out.
The optimism from Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill came after the U.S. Treasury Department said authorities in the Chinese-administered region of Macau were prepared to unblock the frozen funds that North Korea says are the reason it has refused to implement a disarmament pact.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters yesterday that Macau authorities had made the funds available for withdrawal, citing remarks by a spokeswoman for the Monetary Authority of Macau.
A call to a spokesman of Banco Delta Asia, where the funds were being held, was not immediately returned yesterday. The bank had been blacklisted by Washington for allegedly helping North Korea launder money, and its North Korean accounts were frozen. The bank has denied any wrongdoing.
"It's obviously a big step that I think should clear the way for the [North] to step up the process of dealing with its obligations within the 60-day period," Hill said in Seoul, referring to a Saturday deadline under a February agreement in which North Korea had pledged to shut down its main atomic reactor in exchange for energy aid and political concessions.
South Korean nuclear envoy Chun Young-woo, speaking with Hill, said all North Korean accounts at Banco Delta Asia had been unblocked.
He added later that the hold on the accounts would be lifted this morning.
The Macau monetary authority spokeswoman, Wendy Au, told Kyodo News that the funds had been unblocked.
"The account-holders or authorized parties can go to the bank and withdraw or deal with their deposits," Au said.
After meeting in Seoul with China's nuclear envoy, Chun said China also believed that the move would help advance disarmament and that the North had no reason to reject it.
If North Korea follows through with its promises, they would be the first moves the communist state has made to scale back its nuclear development since it kicked out international inspectors and in 2003 restarted its sole operating nuclear reactor.
The hard-won agreement was reached four months after North Korea rattled the world by testing a nuclear device.
Victor Cha, President Bush's top adviser on North Korea, met yesterday with Pyongyang's top nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye Gwan, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official said Cha told Kim that North Korea was running out of time.