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N.Korea talks resume in Beijing, U.S. agrees to restore accounts

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The sixth round of long-running six-nation talks aiming to persuade North Korea to abandon nuclear research opened in Beijing Monday with the United States agreeing to unfreeze the reclusive Communist state's Macao bank accounts.
BEIJING, March 19 (RIA Novosti) - The sixth round of long-running six-nation talks aiming to persuade North Korea to abandon nuclear research opened in Beijing Monday with the United States agreeing to unfreeze the reclusive Communist state's Macao bank accounts.

Progress at the talks, which have been held since August 2003 and have involved Russia, South and North Koreas, the United States, China, and Japan, has been stalled mostly over North Korea's disagreements with the United States and Japan.

But tensions could be nearing an end after an insider source quoted U.S. chief negotiator Christopher Hill as saying his country had requested North Korea's accounts with the Macao Bank in China to be unfrozen. The $24-million accounts were blocked in September 2005 over alleged counterfeiting and money laundering.

The previous round of North Korea talks in February yielded a breakthrough deal when Pyongyang agreed to shut down its reactor producing weapons-grade plutonium in exchange for energy aid, and a diplomatic compromise with the U.S. and Japan.

But North Korea's chief delegate Kim Kye Gwan has warned the six-party agreements were all fragile and the situation can aggravate badly. He reiterated that his country would only suspend its Yongbyon reactor and let in UN inspectors after the bank accounts were restored fully.

The current negotiations have also seen North Korea's Kim Kye Gwan threatening to exclude Japan from the talks if it failed to meet its commitments.

Japan demands to readdress the problem of its citizens' abductions in the 1970s-80s. The North said it would consider re-investigation if Japan agreed to compensate for its colonial aggression in the 1910-1945, end pressure on pro-North Korean residents in Japan, and lift sanctions imposed after Pyongyang conducted its first nuclear bomb tests in October.

Japan's chief negotiator Kenichiro Sasae declined to comment on Kim Kye Gwan's statement in order to avoid further confrontation at the slowly advancing talks but added Japan was prepared to address the issue.

Under the February 13 agreement, the six negotiating nations set up five working groups, including two on North Korea's relations with the U.S. and Japan. All the five groups met ahead of the current negotiations on March 15-18.

North Korea conducted its ballistic missile launches in summer and the first nuclear bomb tests in October, triggering international condemnation and UN and unilateral sanctions from Japan and South Korea.

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