U.S. Releases Frozen N. Korean Funds Linked to Illicit Weapons
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration removed a key stumbling block to the nuclear disarmament of North Korea by agreeing yesterday to the release of North Korean funds frozen in a Macao bank linked to illicit weapons and money laundering.
The decision by the Treasury Department clears the way for Chinese monetary authorities in Macao to return to North Korea as much as $25 million in funds held at the Banco Delta Asia.
The freeze, imposed after American authorities blacklisted the bank in September 2005 as a “primary money laundering concern,” so angered the North Korean regime that it refused to participate in nuclear arms talks for more than a year.
North Korea agreed last month to shut its Yongbyon reactor, which produces plutonium suitable for nuclear weapons, as part of a deal that included an American promise to resolve the dispute over the frozen funds within 30 days.
