Agence France-Presse,
North Korea has told a visiting US delegation that it will miss Saturday's deadline to begin shutting down its main nuclear reactor but could start within 30 days, NBC News reported Wednesday.
It said chief nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-Gwan made the promise during a meeting Tuesday with the team led by New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, after apparently accepting assurances it would soon receive funds frozen in a Macau bank.
Kim said the North could start closing the Yongbyon reactor and re-admit UN atomic inspectors within 30 days, the network reported from Pyongyang.
In Seoul the chief US nuclear envoy insisted that the banking dispute, which had blocked progress on a February 13 international disarmament deal, has finally been settled.
Christopher Hill was speaking after the US State Department announced that authorities in Macau had unfrozen the North Korean accounts on Tuesday.
North Korea had refused to shut Yongbyon, as required under the first stage of the pact, until it receives the 25 million dollars frozen in Banco Delta Asia (BDA).
Macau authorities froze the accounts after Washington blacklisted the bank for allegedly laundering illicit funds.
“I think we have come to a very important juncture which is that we consider this BDA matter to be really resolved,” Hill told reporters. “The DPRK (North Korea) has access to their accounts now.
“We think it is a really important time to get on with the ever urgent task of denuclearisation, in particular to get on with the implementation of this February agreement.”
Hill said he would get a better understanding of North Korea's response when he meets Victor Cha, a national security adviser in charge of Korea and Japan who accompanied Richardson's delegation.
The team was officially tasked with securing the remains of US troops killed in the Korean War, but also discussed the nuclear dispute.
Richardson and his party Wednesday crossed the inter-Korean border with remains believed to be those of six US soldiers, the US military said.
Hill was to meet Richardson in Seoul Wednesday afternoon before the governor holds a press conference.
Under the six-nation agreement, energy-starved North Korea agreed to disable its nuclear facilities in return for one million tons of fuel oil or equivalent aid.
As a first step it was to shut down Yongbyon and invite UN inspectors by April 14, receiving an initial 50,000 tons of oil from South Korea in exchange.
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Tuesday the deadline may be flexible given that there were only four days to go.
“You're bumping up against the technical ability to do that (shutdown) safely,” he said. “We'll see where we are at on Saturday.”
The six-nation talks grouping the two Koreas, the US, China, Russia and Japan have dragged on since 2003 but assumed added urgency after the North tested an atomic bomb last October.
South Korea is ready to fulfil its side of the deal. It has already bought 50,000 tons of fuel worth 20 billion won (21 million dollars) and signed a contract to hire three vessels to carry it to the North.
The delay is costing it 15 million won a day to store the oil at a refinery and 60 million won a day to maintain the ship rental contract, the unification ministry said.
