North Korea was on track to fulfill its side of a breakthrough disarmament accord by shutting down its main atomic facility next month, the US envoy to talks on the North’s nuclear programme said on Sunday.North Korea agreed at six-party talks in February that group the two Koreas, the United States, host China, Japan and Russia to shutter its Yongbyon reactor and readmit inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency within 60 days.“I think we are on schedule for the shutdown of the facilities and monitoring by the IAEA,” said US chief negotiator Christopher Hill. Meanwhile, China today said the United States and North Korea have resolved a dispute over $25 million frozen in a Macao bank, one of the key conditions put forward by Pyongyang for dismantling its nuclear programme. This was announced by Chinese State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan, senior official in charge of foreign policy, on the eve of the new round of six-party talks, the official Xinhua news agency reported. The brief report did not provide details of the agreement. “I think we have gotten past the BDA issue and that will not be an impediment to our six-party process,” Hill told reporters late Sunday. A US Treasury Department official arrived in Beijing today to also take up the issue.North Korean envoy Kim told reporters upon his arrival in Beijing on Saturday that North Korea “will not stop its nuclear activity” until the entire $25 million in the frozen accounts is released.South Korean envoy Chun Yung-woo echoed Hill’s optimism, saying on Sunday that he expected the funds issue to be resolved “within a short period of time in a way that will not be an obstacle to the progress of the six-party talks.”
