North Korea’s Chief Nuclear Envoy Returns to North Korea

The six-party talks held in Beijing, China on March 22 broke down without any progress and envoys failed to fix a date for the next round of talks. North Korea’s chief nuclear envoy Kim Kye Kwan unexpectedly left for North Korea without taking part in the top-envoy meeting.

Since the beginning of the most recent phase of six party talks starting on March 19, he said all through the negotiations, “I will not discuss the denuclearization issue until we receive the $25 million frozen in the Banco Delta Asia (BDA).” However, he did not respond to reporters’ questions when he went out through Beijing international airport yesterday.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao stated, “The problem (over the money transfer issue from the Banco Delta Asia to North Korea) will take time to resolve.”

While the U.S. has indicated its plans to release North Korean funds frozen at BDA, the Bank of China, which the funds were to be transferred to, refused to receive the funds citing fear of a possible credit rate drop. Financial specialists of the U.S., China and South Korea have discussed a technical solution over the money transfer from BDA. However, they reportedly have not found any solutions yet.

The main agenda of the talks dealt with the road maps to disablement of the North’s nuclear programs as well as verification measures for the closure of nuclear facilities. However the discussion has been stalled due to North Korea’s refusal to take part in the negotiations.

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