North Korea has asked Macau authorities to transfer its funds there to financial institutions in Russia and Italy, possibly clearing the way for Pyongyang to fulfill its nuclear disarmament obligations, Japanese media said Monday.
The North missed the April 14 deadline to shut down its main reactor, as agreed under a February deal with the U.S. and four other nations, citing a failure to release its funds at Macau-based Banco Delta Asia or BDA.
North Korea had made shutting down the reactor contingent on the release of the money, frozen after the U.S. blacklisted BDA, where the North had 52 accounts allegedly linked to money laundering and counterfeiting.
North Korean officials held talks Saturday with authorities in the Chinese territory of Macau, and requested that some of the money be transferred to unspecified financial institutions in Russia and Italy, Japan's Mainichi newspaper reported.
It cited China's Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei as telling Japanese ruling-party lawmakers, in Beijing for a friendship visit, about the development.
On Sunday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency cited an unidentified senior BDA official as saying that Macau financial authorities had ordered the bank to prepare for a transfer.
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