N Korea to allow UN inspectors, says US

North Korea’s top nuclear negotiator told a visiting American delegation on Monday that UN inspectors would be invited back once $25 million in frozen funds are released, but said it could be difficult for Pyongyang to meet a Saturday deadline for shutting down its main nuclear reactor.

The impoverished country has refused to move forward on February’s landmark agreement due to the delayed transfer of the funds, which were frozen by Macau authorities after the US blacklisted privately run Banco Delta Asia in 2005 for allegedly helping Pyongyang launder money.

On Monday, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan met Bill Richardson, a Democratic presidential candidate, and Anthony Principi, President George W Bush’s former veteran affairs secretary, who were visiting Pyongyang. Kim “indicated that the North Korean government would invite the … inspectors back the moment the funds are released to the North Korean government,” Principi told reporters after the meeting.

–FOSTER KLUG