북한 , 아직도 BDA 문제 해결 못하다.

N Korea still to recover frozen $25m

By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington and Anna Fifield in Seoul

Published: May 3 2007 18:38 | Last updated: May 3 2007 18:38

North Korea is still having trouble recovering $25m (??18m, £12.5m) in previously frozen assets that are crucial to implementing the six-party deal towards denuclearising the Korean peninsula.

Almost three weeks since the agreed deadline for North Korea to shut down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, Pyongyang is facing hurdles in obtaining the money from Macao’s Banco Delta Asia, which North Korea insisted be released as part of the nuclear accord reached in February.

A senior US official said Pyongyang had encountered several problems in consolidating all its accounts at BDA. In addition to not realising how many accounts it held at the bank, the official said North Korea appeared to be having difficulty getting the necessary signatures needed to release the funds.

Once Pyongyang has succeeded in consolidating its accounts, officials say it could withdraw the money. South Korean and US officials confirmed that North Korea wanted to transfer the money to Italian and Russian bank accounts.

North Korea appears to believe that transferring the funds through the global banking system would signal it was acceptable to do business with Kim Jong-il’s regime again. Banks have been unwilling to process North Korean money transfers since the US accused BDA of facilitating alleged North Korean counterfeiting activities.

US President George W. Bush and Shinzo Abe, Japanese prime minister, last week warned North Korea that their patience was not unlimited. But the US official said the White House would be patient as long as there were signs North Korea was attempting to recover its money. “If we got to a point where North Korea was not trying to move the money, we would have to say ‘What’s going on’. But the Macanese authorities are saying there is a real effort to move the money.”

Underlining the difficulties that lie ahead in convincing North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons, a senior South Korean official said that the process would only get more difficult from here.

“The February agreement will be the easiest agreement to implement, and the BDA issue will be the easiest stumbling block to overcome,” he said.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007