TOKYO (AP) – Six-party talks aimed at resolving the North Korean nuclear standoff could resume soon after July 4 as nations move toward the next step of dismantling the communist country’s nuclear facilities, the American envoy to the talks said Wednesday.

American envoy Christopher Hill told reporters that July will be a busy month of shuttle diplomacy for the countries involved, with the full six-party negotiations resuming and possibly ministerial meetings between later in the month.

Mr. Hill said Tuesday that the North had finally received millions of dollars at the heart of the dispute, which had stalled the talks, and he urged to communist state to quickly shut down its only reactor.

About $25 million in North Korean funds were frozen in a Macau bank blacklisted by America over allegations of money-laundering and other financial crimes. The financial dispute halted nuclear negotiations for more than a year, and the American approved the release of the money this year to help end the standoff.

“My understanding is that today it was deposited in a North Korean account in Russia,” Mr. Hill told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday.

Mr. Hill told reporters that the transfer involved “the total amount” of disputed North Korean funds, and said it was “something like $23 million.”

It was not clear why the amount was different from previously reported.

Mr. Hill, on a regional tour to Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo, had said he hoped to see a shutdown “within weeks, not months.”

Russia’s Interfax-China news agency cited an unidentified North Korean official on Monday as saying Pyongyang plans to shut down the reactor in the second half of July.