The designated Russian bank has not received the funds of North
Koreatransferred from a Macao bank, thus hindering an expected step
to open fresh nuclear talks, a Russian minister said on Monday.
The US Department of Treasury has guaranteed no sanctions
against the bank involved in the money transfer, the RIA Novosti
news agency quoted Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin as saying.
The Dalkombank (Far East Commercial Bank), based in Russia's far
eastern city of Khabarovsk, however, has not yet received the funds
due to technical problems, he told reporters at an investors
conference in Moscow.
The reports did not specify the technical problems.
North Korean ambassador to Russia, Kim Yong Che, however, said
those funds have arrived at the Central Bank of Russia and will be
transferred to North Korean foreign trade bank via a Russian bank
in Khabarovsk, Itar-Tass news agency reported.
The ambassador reaffirmed the North Korea's readiness to fulfill
all its commitments undertaken at the six-party talks, a
multi-national negotiation on the denuclearization of the Korean
Peninsula.
The next round of the six-party talks, involving North Korea,
the United States, China, Russia, South Korea and Japan, will start
at the beginning of July, Itar-Tass said, citing an anonymous
diplomatic source.
North Korea has insisted that its US$25 million frozen at the
Macao-based Banco Delta Asia must be returned before it shuts down
its Yongbyon nuclear reactor and starts new talks on the Korean
Peninsula nuclear issue.
The money was remitted last Thursday reportedly to the New York
Federal Reserve and was expected to be delivered to the Russian
bank.
Pyongyang, in response, has invited a delegation of the
International Atomic Energy Agency to discuss the shutdown of its
Yongbyon nuclear facilities under an agreement reached at the
six-party talks in February.
North Korean funds were frozen after the United States
blacklisted the bank in September 2005 for allegedly helping
Pyongyang launder money, an allegation denied by both the bank and
Pyongyang.
(Xinhua News Agency June 19, 2007)
