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BEIJING : The top US envoy to negotiations on North Korea's nuclear programme said Wednesday it was unclear when they could resume as Pyongyang waits for the return of 25 million dollars in assets.
Planned morning meetings of chief delegates at six-nation talks in Beijing did not take place, according to officials, after the North insisted it would not join in until the money was safely returned.
"They have not completed the transfer," US negotiator Christopher Hill told reporters after lunching with South Korea's envoy Chun Yung-Woo.
"Until they do that North Korea has made clear it is not prepared to engage in substantive discussions."
Authorities in Macau, where the money has been frozen since 2005 due to US accusations of North Korean money laundering and counterfeiting, said earlier this week it would be released to a Pyongyang bank account.
But no one involved in the process has said when it will take place, and North Korea has said it will not begin implementing a six-nation disarmament accord signed on February 13 until the money is safely back in its hands.
Hill said he would meet with the Chinese delegate later Wednesday and that China would subsequently host a round-table meeting of delegates from all six nations -- China, the United States, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia.
"I hope we will find out whether they have made any progress on the banking issue," he said.
North Korea, which conducted its first atomic weapons test in October last year, agreed in the February 13 deal to shut down its key nuclear reactor at Yongbyon by mid-April and allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors back into the country.
In return, the impoverished regime would initially receive 50,000 tonnes of heavy fuel for energy use.
The United States announced on Monday, at the start of the latest round of six-nation talks, that it had struck a deal with the North to end the dispute over the money and that the assets would be returned.
- AFP /ls
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