US strikes hopeful note on North Korea stalemate

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

MANILA, May 25 (Reuters) Washington expects North Korea will meet a commitment to shut down its nuclear facilities this month after it has received funds still frozen in a Macau bank, US envoy Christopher Hill said today.

''I do believe the DPRK (North Korea) continues to signal to us privately and publicly, and most recently last night, that as soon as the banking matter is resolved, they will move quickly to implement their part of the deal,'' Hill told reporters in Manila.

''I am expecting it very soon. I expected that last month and hopefully we can get that done this month,'' said Hill, the chief U.S. negotiator in talks on dismantling North Korea's nuclear programme.

Hill's comments signalled a softer line than earlier in the week when he said Pyongyang should not wait for the money to arrive before shutting down its Soviet-era reactor.

A senior North Korean official, also in Manila for preparatory meetings for a summit of Asia's largest security bloc, the 26-member ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), said Pyongyang would take action when the funds were transferred.

''If they do this, we will go forward. We are awaiting America's action,'' Jong Song-il told reporters.

In closed-door meetings between diplomats, North Korean officials had defended their attempts to build an arsenal of nuclear weapons and described the United States, South Korea and Japan, as an ''alliance of war''.

Washington is pushing Asian countries to adopt a tough non-proliferation stance at the ARF meeting on August 2.

North Korea agreed to shut down its reactor at six-country nuclear talks in February but insisted it would not move until it received 25 dollars million frozen at Macau's Banco Delta Asia.

The money was blocked after the United States blacklisted the bank, accusing it of laundering illicit North Korean funds.

North Korea missed a mid-April deadline to begin the shutdown because the transfer was held up.

Washington and others subsequently demanded that Pyongyang live up to promises it made at the talks with South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

Hill said there was still no plan to resume the six-party talks until after the two sides had resolved ''this roadblock''. He added that he hoped the banking issue would be resolved before the end of the month.

REUTERS SM ND1412

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