N Korea talks stalled over frozen funds

Envoys to six-nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear programme extended their meeting on Wednesday in an effort to overcome a financial dispute that sidetracked negotiations and focus on implementing a landmark disarmament pact.

Envoys to six-nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear programme extended their meeting on Wednesday in an effort to overcome a financial dispute that sidetracked negotiations and focus on implementing a landmark disarmament pact.

Host China asked representatives from the two Koreas, the United States, Japan and Russia to stay on to fine-tune ways to meet goals outlined in the Feb 13 agreement.

US envoy Christopher Hill said “there is a lot to discuss about the next phase.”

Negotiations stalled on Tuesday when North Korea refused to meet with other delegates until US$25 million of its funds frozen in a Macau bank were released. So far, neither the Monetary Authority of Macau nor the privately-run Banco Delta Asia bank in Macau have indicated when that would be.

Russia’s ITAR-Tass news agency cited Russia’s chief nuclear envoy Alexander Losyukov as saying the Bank of China refused to accept the transfer because of worries about coming under US financial sanctions.