By RIA Novosti
Washington : The final transfer of North Korea's previously-frozen $25 million from a Macao bank has been held up by technical problems, the US envoy at the six-party nuclear talks said Saturday.
"I heard that the money was transferred, it's in Russia, and they're having some technical problems in getting it to the bank where the actual North Korean accounts are," Christopher Hill said.
Russia said previously it could make a financial vehicle available for the transfer of North Korea's funds if Washington guarantees that no sanctions against Russia will follow.
The North Korean accounts held in Banco Delta Asia (BDA) in Macao were frozen in September 2005 after the US accused the regime of counterfeiting and money laundering. And although the accounts were unfrozen in March, after North Korea agreed to shut down its Yongbyon reactor the BDA was blacklisted making foreign banks wary of handling any further transactions.
Pyongyang has pledged that it will fulfil its February commitments with the five countries involved in a protracted nuclear dispute as soon as it receives the funds.
North Korea boycotted disarmament talks for more than a year over the funds.
In October 2006 after it conducted a nuclear test following which Japan completely halted imports from the republic and closed all its ports to North Korean ships.
The Asahi daily said Wednesday North Korea has withdrawn a portion of the $25 million frozen in the BDA. According to the paper, representatives from two North Korean companies made cash withdrawals of about one million Hong Kong dollars (about $125,000).
The paper quoted a banking source as saying that by June 11 the rest of the funds had been converted into US dollars and transferred to a special account registered to the Korean Bank for Foreign Trade.