TOKYO, June 19 (RIA Novosti) - South Korea's foreign minister said Tuesday North Korea's $25 million unfrozen from a Macao bank had been transferred home after a lengthy delay, clearing the way for Pyongyang to close a nuclear reactor.
"As far as I know, the funds have finally reached the accounts of the North," Song Min-soon was quoted by the Japanese Kyodo Tsusin agency as saying.
The U.S. chief negotiator at six-party denuclearization talks, Chris Hill, said Tuesday that to the best of his knowledge the funds had been transferred to Pyongyang's accounts in the Russian bank.
North Korea has promised to seal its Yongbyon reactor producing weapons-grade plutonium as soon as the money, blocked in China at a U.S. request over money laundering suspicions, has reached the impoverished state. A Russian Far Eastern bank was earlier reported to have agreed to be the final point in the transaction, as all other banks were reluctant to risk potential U.S. sanctions.
The bank in the Far East has made no comment on the report, Kyodo said. Japan's Foreign Ministry did not confirm the transaction either: "We have not checked whether the transaction was completed," spokesman Tomoniko Taniguchi said.
North Korea said at the weekend it would allow U.N. nuclear inspectors into the country as part of the February 13 denuclearization deal with the U.S., China, Russia, Japan and South Korea once the money had been transferred.
Media reports said earlier UN inspectors might visit the North next week to discuss arrangements for the closure of the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, about 100 km (60 miles) north of Pyongyang, expected in a few weeks' time.
As a second phase of the six-nation deal, Pyongyang - which conducted its first nuclear bomb tests last October - is expected to provide the negotiators with a list of all its nuclear facilities for their eventual closure.
In return, the reclusive Communist nation was promised aid, diplomatic contacts, and other incentives.
Hill said in Tokyo Tuesday the next round of six-nation talks would take place in early July.
