By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A senior Chinese official said Sunday that the United States and North Korea have resolved a dispute over North Korean funds frozen in a Macau bank, China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan, the Chinese government's most senior official in charge of foreign policy, told a group of visiting Japanese lawmakers about the US-North Korean deal, Xinhua said. The brief Xinhua report did not provide details of the agreement.
Some US$25 million (€19 million) in North Korean deposits have been frozen in the Banco Delta Asia since Washington blacklisted the tiny, privately run Macau-based bank 19 months ago on suspicion the funds were connected to money-laundering or counterfeiting.
Washington promised to resolve the issue by mid-March as part of an agreement last month on North Korea's nuclear disarmament. On Saturday, North Korea's nuclear envoy said Pyongyang would not shut down its main nuclear reactor until the funds were released.