| Six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear threat stalled unexpectedly on Tuesday, hampered by a lingering row over frozen funds and denting hopes of turning the focus to disabling Pyongyang’s main reactor. The United States said on Monday that $25 million frozen at Macau’s Banco Delta Asia (BDA), which Washington said was complicit in North Korea’s illegal financial dealings, would be released and turned over to Pyongyang for humanitarian use as soon as possible. But the timing of the release was still contingent on talks between North Korea and Macau, and in the meantime, the North was refusing to attend a planned chief delegates meeting at six-party talks in Beijing. “According to host China, North Korea is saying that it will not take part in talks unless it confirms the funds at BDA are transferred to its account in China,” Japan’s chief negotiator, Kenichiro Sasae, told reporters. |