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BANGKOK : The United States on Tuesday voiced hope that a banking dispute stalling North Korea's nuclear dismantling efforts would be resolved soon and urged Pyongyang to start shutting down its atomic reactor.
"We are hopeful that we can come up with a solution very soon," US envoy Christopher Hill told reporters after meeting with Thai Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram in Bangkok.
North Korea has promised to start shutting down its key nuclear plant in exchange for fuel oil under an accord reached at the six-nation talks in February.
But Pyongyang, which carried out its first nuclear test explosion in October, has refused to implement the disarmament pact until it receives US$25 million stuck in a Macau bank.
Hill said the US was working "very hard" to find a solution on the banking dispute and called on North Korea to start shutting down its nuclear reactor.
"We really think it's time North Korea gets on (with) the denuclearisation," he said.
"We are working hard on this banking issue. North Korea has every reason to believe we will solve this, because we will solve this," he said.
The money was initially frozen in Macau's Banco Delta Asia (BDA) bank in 2005 under US money laundering and counterfeiting sanctions.
Despite the United States lifting the restrictions in March, North Korea has been unable to get the money due to a myriad of complications that include other banks not wanting to touch apparently tainted money.
China, North Korea's close ally, hosts the six-nation disarmament talks, which involve the two Koreas, the United States, Japan and Russia. - AFP/de
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