"This delay is because the United States does not do what it has promised. This is the U.S. fault," Kim Yong-nam, head of the North Korean legislature, is quoted as saying during his Pyongyang meeting with Sohn Hak-kyu, the advisor of the Northeast Asia Future Foundation.
Kim Yong-nam said North Korea was still committed to denuclearization and would fulfill its obligations taken as a result of six-party talks with China, the U.S., South Korea, Russia and Japan.
The North Korean accounts in Banco Delta Asia in Macao were frozen in September 2005 at the request of the United States, which accused the Communist regime of counterfeiting and money laundering.
North Korea's $25 million in BDA were unfrozen in March in an attempt to win Pyongyang's promise to close its nuclear reactor. But the fund transfer has been stalled as Washington blacklisted the bank, making other banks wary of handling Korean funds and dealing with the BDA. In response, the regime has delayed shutting down its Yongbyon reactor in April.
The North has pledged that it will fulfil its February commitments with five countries involved in a protracted nuclear dispute, as soon as it receives the funds.
The impoverished state has been cut off from global financial markets for several years and has used cash or complicated barter schemes to pay for supplies and services from other countries.
Pyongyang had boycotted disarmament talks for more than a year over the funds, and conducted its first nuclear bomb tests in October 2006.
After North Korea's nuclear tests in October 2006, Japan fully stopped importing merchandise from the republic and closed all its ports to North Korean ships.
Earlier, Japan warned Pyongyang it could introduce additional sanctions if there was no progress in resolving the problem of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean secret services in 1970-1980s.
North Korea admitted that it had abducted 13 Japanese in 1970-1980s. Five were repatriated, and the remaining eight, North Korea said, have died. Pyongyang believes the issue is closed, but Tokyo insists there were more such cases and demands all those kidnapped be returned home.
