Japan: N Korea nuclear talks to be extended

A stalled round of talks on disarming North Korea’s nuclear programme will be extended even though a dispute over when around €19m of Pyongyang’s funds will be released from a Macau bank is not settled, a Japanese diplomat said today.

North Korea has stayed away for the last two days from the six-party negotiations in China’s capital to meet goals outlined in a landmark February 13 disarmament agreement because of delays in transferring the money.

“We have decided to extend the talks for one or two days for now,” Japanese envoy Kenichiro Sasae said, adding the talks between delegation heads will centre on pushing forward the February 13 pact under which the North is to receive energy and economic assistance in return for beginning the disarmament process.

But he said the issue of the North Korean money had not been resolved yet.

South Korean envoy Chun Yung-woo confirmed that the talks would be extended for one or two days.

The North boycotted the six-nation talks for more than a year after Washington blacklisted the tiny, privately run Banco Delta Asia on suspicion the funds were connected to money-laundering or counterfeiting.

But US officials announced on Monday that the money would be transferred to a North Korean account in Beijing, saying it was up to the Monetary Authority of Macau, a Chinese territory, to release the funds.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said the money transfer was being delayed because Macau authorities were having difficulty confirming the ownership of about 50 North Korean accounts, most of which are under the names of the heads of Zokwang Trading Co, a North Korean-run firm in Macau that US officials have long suspected of being involved in money laundering.

In the mid-1990s, some Zokwang officials were seized by Macau police and sent back to North Korea on suspicion of trying to use large numbers of counterfeit US bills, some of which were traced back to Banco Delta Asia, the Asian Wall Street Journal has reported. Zokwang is also believed to have obtained parts for North Korea’s weapons programmes.

Macau Monetary Authority spokeswoman Wendy Au declined to comment on the delay and would not say when the funds would be released.

“I have no instructions from my superiors regarding when the money will be transferred,” Au said yesterday.

BDA spokesman Joe Wong said the money remains frozen and that the bank hasn’t been ordered by the authority to release the funds.

US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the American envoy, said the delay “is not a US issue at this point.”

The setback comes as the two Koreas, the US, Japan, Russia and host China are trying to fine-tune a timetable for North Korea’s disarmament under the February agreement.

Under the deal, North Korea is to receive energy and economic assistance and a start toward normalising relations with the US and Japan, in return for beginning the disarmament process.

North Korea would ultimately receive assistance equivalent to 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil if it fully discloses and dismantles all its nuclear programmes.

Beside the dispute over the funds, the talks have also been complicated by Pyongyang’s strained ties with Tokyo.

North Korea is upset at Japan’s insistence that the two nations settle issues related to Pyongyang’s abduction of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and ’80s before taking steps to improve relations.