A hitch stalling the release of frozen North Korean money from an Asian bank has been resolved, which potentially clears the way for a solution to the dispute that has stalled nuclear disarmament talks, the State Department said Friday. After two weeks of talks in Beijing, banking officials from the United States, China, North and South Korea and the Bank of China have agreed on a «technical pathway» for the $25 million (¤18.7 million) to be returned to Pyongyang, spokesman Sean McCormack said, according to AP «The result has been to identify the technical pathway to return the funds,» McCormack told reporters. «We support the release of all the funds. It is now a matter of technical implementation.» Previously, U.S. officials had suggested privately that some of the $25 million (¤18.7 million) held in the blacklisted and now-shuttered Banco Delta Asia in Macau might be tainted and not released. McCormack said the United States is ready to discuss the situation with Macau authorities «and other interested parties as they work to implement that decision» on transferring the money. «The implementation phase of that is going to be up to others.» McCormack would not comment on reports the money would be transferred to North Korea through the Bank of China in Hong Kong and referred questions about specifics to authorities in China and Macau. A U.S. official in Beijing has denied the reports. He refused to predict when, or even if, the «technical pathway» would be employed but said the money returned must be used for the «betterment of the North Korean people and for humanitarian purposes.» McCormack also announced that Washington's top East Asia diplomat, Christopher Hill, would travel to the region on Sunday for talks with officials there on North Korea's progress toward shutting down its main nuclear facility by a mid-April deadline. Hill will travel to Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing to discuss the «six-party process» among North and South Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan aimed at getting Pyongyang to halt its nuclear weapons program. The standoff over the money has threatened the next step in a February agreement that committed North Korea to shut down its Yongbyon nuclear facility by April 14 in return for economic aid and political concessions. The money was frozen after Washington blacklisted the small Banco Delta Asia for alleged complicity in money laundering and other illicit activities by North Korea. Pyongyang said the freeze showed Washington's hostile intentions toward it and refused to return to international talks on its nuclear program for more than a year. The problems holding up the transfer of the money were believed to be related to difficulties in finding a bank willing to accept the North Korean funds. -- SPA
