North Korea told to honour disarmament deal

Time is running out for North Korea to take initial steps toward dismantling its nuclear programme, a US envoy warned today.

At the same time, a US negotiator expressed hope that Saturday’s deadline could still be met.

The optimism from US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill comes after the US 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 move forward on a disarmament agreement.

The Macau government said it was aware of the Treasury statement and that it would work with all parties involved. “Simultaneously, it expects all parties concerned to come up with appropriate and responsible arrangements respectively,” it said on its website.

A call to a spokesman of Banco Delta Asia, the bank where the funds are being held, was not immediately returned. The lender had been blacklisted by Washington for allegedly helping the North 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 where Pyongyang pledged to shut down its main atomic reactor in exchange for energy aid and political concessions.

North Korea has refused to talk about further disarmament steps until its $25m (€18.6million) in frozen funds is returned.

In the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, Victor Cha, US President George Bush’s top adviser on North Korea, told North Korea’s top nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye Gwan, that Pyongyang had to act quickly, according to a US official with knowledge of the meeting.

“They don’t have a lot of time,” the official said after Cha and Kim met. “They just can’t be in receive mode, they have to be in action mode.”

The North agreed to shut its main reactor only after the US promised to resolve the financial issue within 30 days – which Washington failed to do because the fund transfer has been mired in technical complications.

“The United States understands that the Macau authorities are prepared to unblock all North Korean-related accounts currently frozen in Banco Delta Asia,” the US Treasury Department statement said, adding that the US would support such action.