Pyongyang, North Korea – North Korea’s top nuclear negotiator told a visiting American delegation Monday that his government would immediately invite U.N. nuclear inspectors into the country if $25 million in disputed North Korean funds are released to Pyongyang.
North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan met with Bill Richardson, a Democratic U.S. presidential candidate, and Anthony Principi, President Bush’s former Veterans 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.
The North has refused to implement a Feb. 13 disarmament agreement because of the delayed transfer of $25 million in the regime’s money frozen by Macau authorities after the U.S. blacklisted a Macau bank in 2005 for allegedly helping Pyongyang launder money.
Richardson, the New Mexico governor who has undertaken diplomatic missions to countries at odds with the U.S., began a rare visit to isolated North Korea on Sunday to recover remains of American servicemen killed in the Korean War.
The four-day trip, which has been endorsed by the Bush administration, comes days before a crucial deadline in a recent nuclear-disarmament accord.
“It could be the signal of an improved relationship,” Richardson said of the discussions to secure U.S. remains.
