"The funds from the Delta Asia bank have already been received at the Russian central bank. Soon, via one of the Russian banks in the far east, they will be transferred to the foreign trade bank of North Korea," Ambassador Kim Yong Jae was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.

Meanwhile Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said checks were still under way to ensure there was no risk of sanctions before the money could be transferred to a bank in far eastern Russia where North Korea has an account, Dalkombank.

"When we are 100 percent certain, the finance ministry will give the green light," Interfax quoted Kudrin as saying.

The movement of the funds comes after North Korea on Saturday invited an International Atomic Energy Agency team to discuss a shutdown of its nuclear reactor, saying the banking dispute that had blocked progress on a February disarmament pact was almost over.

earlier related report
Souht Korea and US expect North Korea nuke shutdown in weeks
Seoul (AFP) June 18 - South Korean and US officials said Monday they expect North Korea to start shutting down its nuclear programme within weeks, in what would be the first breakthrough after almost four years of negotiations.

The North announced Saturday it had invited an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team to discuss closing down the Yongbyon reactor, the source of raw material for its bomb-making plutonium.

The IAEA said Monday it would send a team to Pyongyang next week to discuss procedures for verifying and monitoring the shutdown. It would be the first visit by inspectors since they were expelled in December 2002 when the latest crisis erupted.

Announcing the invitation, the North said a banking dispute which had blocked progress on a six-nation February nuclear disarmament pact was almost over.

The intractable dispute involved more than 20 million dollars in North Korean funds, which were frozen at Macau's Banco Delta Asia (BDA) in 2005 under US sanctions. The money was to be transferred via a Russian bank.

"In the next two or three weeks, I hope, the IAEA monitoring and verification team will visit North Korea and begin to shut down its nuclear reactor," Chun Yung-Woo, the South's chief nuclear negotiator, told AFP.

His US counterpart Christopher Hill said in Seoul: "We are talking about weeks, not months." Hill, who arrived from Beijing and will go on to Tokyo, added: "Clearly, we have made a turn over the weekend. We are away from this banking issue and back on the denuclearisation issue. Let's see how quickly we can get this done." Russia's Interfax news agency quoted a North Korean diplomat as saying the reactor would be sealed in the second half of July.

"According to our specialists, halting the reactor technically requires about a month. Hence we expect to seal it, in accordance with agreements achieved during six-party talks, in the second half of July 2007," the agency quoted the unidentified diplomat as saying.

In Moscow North Korea's ambassador Kim Yong-Jae said the funds had already been received at Russia's central bank. "Soon, via one of the Russian banks in the far east, they will be transferred to the foreign trade bank of North Korea," Interfax news agency quoted him as saying. Chun said he had heard the transfer may be completed Monday night, Seoul time. Yongbyon is thought to be the North's only operating reactor and the source of its plutonium -- including the material used in last October's nuclear test, which shocked the world.

"Let's hope that they (inspectors) can get there very soon and begin this process because we've lost a lot of time over this banking issue," Hill said.

Diplomats in Vienna said the IAEA board might meet on July 9 to authorise the actual monitoring.

Chun, who dined with Hill Monday night, said they agreed that the next six-party meeting of nuclear negotiators, who began talking in August 2003, would be held as soon as the shutdown is completed.

The reactor's closure is the first step in the deal involving the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, China and Japan. In return, South Korea is to provide 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil.

Under a second phase the North would disable all its nuclear programmes in return for 950,000 tons of oil or equivalent aid and major diplomatic benefits including normalised ties with Washington.

The North adamantly refused to honour the February pact until it received its money, which was frozen over US allegations of money laundering and counterfeiting.

Washington unfroze the funds in March but had major problems finding a bank to handle the transfer of apparently tainted cash.

It eventually used the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to help get the cash from BDA to Russia's central bank and on to the private Russian bank.

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