A Russian bank announced earlier in the day that North Korea's $25 million, frozen for nearly two years in a Macao bank account, had been transferred in full to the country, in a complex international transaction.
Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying: "As the funds that had been frozen at Macao's Banco Delta Asia have been transferred as we demanded, the troublesome issue of the frozen funds is finally resolved."
"There will be discussions with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) delegates June 26 in Pyongyang on shutting down nuclear facilities and inspections and monitoring," he said.
The reclusive Communist state had refused to implement an agreement reached on February 13 in Beijing, demanding the release of the money, frozen following money laundering accusations from the United States. Under the deal, the North had agreed to allow IAEA inspectors into the country, and to close the Yongbyong nuclear reactor in exchange for fuel aid.
The ministry spokesman said the funds would be used to "improve the living conditions of our people," and for "humanitarian goals."
North Korea, which conducted its first nuclear bomb test last October, had boycotted talks on its nuclear disarmament for over a year over the banking dispute.
Earlier Dalcombank, based in Russia's Far East city of Khabarovsk, confirmed that the funds, received by the bank via the U.S. Federal Reserve and Russia's Central Bank, had been passed on to North Korea's Foreign Trade Bank.
Last week, U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill traveled to Pyongyang in a surprise visit aimed at moving the six-party negotiations on the nuclear dispute forward, and said he expected the talks, involving China, Japan, the North and South Korea, Russia and United States, to resume in a few weeks.
Hill said at a news conference in Tokyo on Saturday that said North Korea had expressed a willingness to close the Yongbyon reactor, and that United States expects the reactor to be shut down within three weeks.
