Frozen North Korean assets that have held up a nuclear disarmament deal have not yet been fully transferred, a Russian diplomatic source was quoted as saying on Friday.
”The consultations of the specialists of the parties concerned are still not complete, because certain technical questions remain to be cleared up,” the Foreign Ministry source told Itar-Tass news agency.
In a complex, United States-brokered deal, the cash was reportedly being transferred from a bank in Macau to the New York Federal Reserve, then to the Russian central bank and on to a private Russian bank where cash-strapped North Korea has an account.
Japan’s Kyodo News agency earlier quoted authorities in Macau as saying the funds from the Banco Delta Asia had arrived at the New York branch of the Federal Reserve.
North Korea has refused to comply with a deal to shut its nuclear reactor until it receives $25-million frozen at the bank in 2005 under US pressure.
Macau officials had said on Thursday more than $20-million at the Banco Delta Asia had finally been transferred.
US and Chinese banks had refused to touch the money, which was blacklisted on US allegations it came from money-laundering and counterfeiting. — Sapa-AFP