US urges NKorea to make effort on deadline day

Beijing, Apr 14: The United States urged North Korea to make more efforts to implement an agreement on unwinding its nuclear programme as the reclusive communist country looked set to miss today's deadline to shut down a reactor.

Under a multilateral deal struck in February, Pyongyang agreed to shut down its Soviet-era Yongbyon plant within 60 days, but it has not made good on that pledge because of millions of dollars frozen in North Korean accounts at a Macau bank.

Washington says the funds have been unblocked, and the onus is now on North Korea to act.

US envoy Chris Hill said today there had been a big diplomatic push to end the crisis. He has had talks with the South Koreans, and today he was due to meet his Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei, and was expected to consult with Japan.

North Korea's top nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan, did not arrive in Beijing today as had been expected by many amid the quickening diplomacy linked to the deadline.

''We'd like to see a similar level of effort from the DPRK a level of effort that, frankly, we haven't been seeing,'' Hill said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

''...If this is going to work, they need to show an equal amount of concern to make it work.'' North Korea said yesterday it would soon check whether it can access about 25 million dollars in the accounts at Macau's Banco Delta Asia, which were frozen after the United States accused the bank of being involved in money laundering.

It said it remained committed to the February 13 nuclear disarmament deal reached in six-party talks grouping the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and host China.

Hill, describing the North Koreans as ''not a very communicative bunch of people'', said he had heard nothing new today.

''We'll have to see if that statement yesterday meant anything at all,'' Hill told reporters. ''I just don't know.'' North Korea, which conducted its first nuclear test last October, has insisted the money must be freed before it will comply with the February agreement.

That deal called for it to shut down the Yongbyon plant by today as a first step towards ending its nuclear programme.

The State Department, which Hill said would issue a statement in Washington later in the day, appeared ready for the possibility that North Korea would miss the deadline and asked that it take steps to comply with the agreement, for example by inviting back international nuclear inspectors.

North Korean officials told a US delegation visiting Pyongyang earlier this week it could move, within a day of receiving the funds, to invite international nuclear inspectors back into the country who would oversee the shutdown.

Reuters