Macau authorities are prepared to unblock frozen North Korean funds, the US Treasury Department said yesterday, possibly paving the way for a breakthrough in an agreement to dismantle Pyongyang's nuclear program.
The Macau government said it was aware of the US 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," the government said on its Web site.
A call to a spokesman of the Banco Delta Asia, the bank where the funds are being held, was not immediately returned yesterday. The lender had been blacklisted by Washington for allegedly helping the North launder money and its North Korean accounts were frozen.
Pyongyang has refused to move forward on a February agreement under which it will close its main nuclear reactor in return for economic aid and political concessions until the US$25 million is returned to the North. The deal was put together by nuclear disarmament negotiators from the two Koreas, the US, China, Japan and Russia.
"The United States understands that the Macau authorities are prepared to unblock all North Korean-related accounts currently frozen in Banco Delta Asia," the Treasury Department said in a statement. "The United States would support a decision by the Macau authorities to unblock the accounts in question."
The statement, released in an e-mail before dawn yesterday, did not give any other details. It comes ahead of a Saturday deadline by which North Korea was to take initial steps toward dismantling its nuclear program, including closing its main nuclear reactor, in exchange for the aid.
But the dispute over the funds has stalled the process, with North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-gwan saying this week that his government would allow UN nuclear inspectors into the country -- to check whether it is meeting its commitments -- only after the funds are unfrozen.
The US' nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill has said the financial problem would be a stumbling block to meeting the deadline.
North Korea only agreed to shut down the reactor 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.
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