North Korea Hopes 6-Party Ministerial Talks in August

North Korea Hopes 6-Party Ministerial Talks in August. June. 25, 2007 05:28. gun43@donga.com viyonz@donga.com.

North Korea said on June 23 that it is talking with the U.S. to hold a six-party foreign ministers’ meeting in early August.

A spokesperson for the North Korean Foreign Ministry said in an interview with the Korean Central News Agency, the country’s official news agency, that, “The two sides (Pyongyang and Washington) agreed to check the possibility of holding a six-party foreign ministers’ meeting on the sidelines of the ministerial meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum scheduled for early August in the Philippines, and to cooperate to successfully hold the meeting.”

However, Christopher Hill, U.S. chief negotiator to the six-party talks, said to reporters immediately after arriving in Washington from Japan, “The appropriate timing for a six-party foreign ministers’ meeting will be late July.”

Mohamed El Baradei, director general of the IAEA, said on June 22 that a preliminary inspection team plans to visit the North from June 26 to 30 to discuss the dismantlement process for the North’s nuclear facilities.

Meanwhile, the Russian Finance Ministry said that day that $25 million frozen at the Macao-based Banco Delta Asia was transferred to Dalkombank, a Russian commercial bank located in the far east of the country, and that the money will be remitted to the headquarters of the Foreign Trade Bank of the DPRK as early as June 25.