NK Rejects US Calls to Disband Nuke Facilities

A North Korean diplomat rejected U.S. calls for his government to act first to implement a denuclearization agreement, insisting Thursday that a banking dispute has to be resolved beforehand, Yonhap News Agency reported in Washington.

"Our position has been clear from the beginning," Kim Myong-gil, deputy chief of North Korean mission to the United Nations, told Yonhap over the phone. "The issue of BDA (Banco Delta Asia) has to be solved first."

BDA, a small Macanese bank, is embroiled in a fierce deadlock involving $25 million in North Korea-related funds. The bank froze the money in late 2005 after being accused by the U.S. Treasury of laundering money Pyongyang pockets through illicit financial activities. After coordination with the U.S., Macanese authorities agreed last month to release the entire sum, allowing account holders to withdraw their money.

But North Korea insists on transferring the fund to a third country, apparently to verify that it has not been blacklisted in the international financial market. The transfer has been complicated technically by Treasury's punitive sanctions against the BDA.

The banking glitch has put on hold a six-nation denuclearization accord, signed in February, that requires Pyongyang to shut down its key nuclear facilities within 60 days. The deadline, April 14, passed amid a stalemate on the BDA issue. South and North Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan are members of the six-party forum.