Reply #7: N.Korea puts atom monitors' return on hold over funds [View All]

Source: Reuters

N.Korea puts atom monitors' return on hold over funds

By Mark Heinrich
31 minutes ago

VIENNA (Reuters) - A visit by U.N. nuclear monitors to North Korea
set for next week has been put on hold, a North Korean official said
on Thursday, clouding hopes Pyongyang would start shutting down
its atom bomb program soon.

Hours earlier the U.S. nuclear envoy began a surprise visit to North
Korea a few days after it hinted it would start carrying out nuclear
disarmament and allow a return of International Atomic Energy
Agency inspectors to verify this.

But the signs of movement in a long stalled process faltered when
North Korea's embassy in Vienna, headquarters of the IAEA, said
Pyongyang had not received any of $25 million released from frozen
North Korean funds.

-snip-

Hyon cited media reports that the funds had been forwarded by the
Federal Reserve Bank in New York to Russia's central bank a week
ago for relay into a North Korea account in Russia.

"But we have no idea where the money is," he said.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070621/wl_nm/korea_north_dc