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TOKYO: Japan on Monday welcomed the US agreement to unfreeze North Korean funds at a Macau bank, hoping it would help bring progress in six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear programme.
Japan has taken the hardest line within the six-nation talks and maintains its own sweeping sanctions on North Korea.
“We expect the deal will lead the six-way talks in a good direction, even though the talks on the frozen funds in the Banco Delta Asia and the six-party talks are separate matters,” chief government spokesman Yasuhisa Shiozaki said.
“This is meaningful in that the deal provides a favourable environment for the six-party talks,” he told a news conference.
The United States said Monday it had agreed on the release of some 25 million dollars in North Korean money which has been frozen at the Macau bank since 2005 due to US allegations of money laundering and counterfeiting.
The announcement came hours before the latest six-nation talks in Beijing. North Korea has insisted it will not implement a February 13 deal on disabling its main nuclear reactor until the financial sanctions were lifted.
Unlike the United States, its closest ally, Japan has refused to moderate its hard line against North Korea, which tested an atom bomb in October.
Japan demands North Korea take action over its past abductions of Japanese civilians, an issue on which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has built his career campaigning.
