Talks on halting North Korea’s nuclear programme broke down on Thursday. This has thrown efforts to meet deadlines next month for UN inspectors to verify the closure of Pyongyang’s main nuclear reactor, into doubt.The latest round of talks never got off the ground this week because of a dispute over the transfer of North Korean money frozen in Macau bank accounts. China issued a statement saying they would take a recess but did not give a date for the resumption of talks. “The parties agreed to recess and will resume talks at the earliest opportunity to continue to discuss and formulate an action plan for the next phase,” the statement said. Even before the statement was released, chief North Korean negotiator Kim Kye Gwan flew out of Beijing, after staying away from the talks for several days, upset that US$ 25 million in North Korean funds was stuck at Banco Delta Asia (BDA) in Macau, a Chinese territory. “This round of talks started with the BDA problem and ended with the BDA problem,” said Japanese envoy Kenichiro Sasae. An agreement reached last month calls on Pyongyang to give up its nuclear ambitions in exchange for energy aid and political concessions. The money in the Macau bank had been frozen by a United States investigation into money laundering and counterfeiting, but the US agreed earlier this week to release the money and transfer it to a Bank of China account in Beijing.Sasae said talks needed to resume quickly, otherwise there would be problems meeting a deadline set in a February 13 agreement that calls for UN inspectors to verify the closure of North Korea’s main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon by April 14.But chief US envoy Christopher Hill said he is optimistic the deadlines can still be met.
