[imText1]On the 3rd, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Song Min Soon said that the issue of North Korea’s BDA funds may not be resolved by the deadline set by the Feb 13th Agreement, April 14th.
Minister Song who was attending the “South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation” in India said, “Though we would like to believe that the BDA issue will be concluded by the initial deadline, we are also considering the fact that it may not.”
At present, North Korea is arguing that it will not begin the preliminary stages of disabling its Yongbyun nuclear reactor unless the BDA funds are released. Minister Song’s comment is verbal evidence that the Feb 13 Agreement may in fact be unable to deliver the desired results by the designated 60 days.
Transferring BDA fund to an account of the Bank of China encountered some problems, so it would be difficult to fulfill the preliminary measures within the next 10 days.
Nonetheless, Song displayed some optimism, “It only takes a few days to begin the disarmament. As long as the BDA issue is resolved within the next couple of days, the deadline set by the Feb 13 Agreement is still feasible.”
Retrospectively, the U.S. Administration announced that necessary measures for the release of North Korea’s frozen funds had already been taken and that only action remained.
At the daily press briefing, spokesman Sean McCormack also said that measures had been taken to resolve the BDA issue. He said that maximum efforts had been made by the U.S. and China to resolve the issue and that the government wished for a speedy conclusion.
China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Qin Gang also said that U.S. Deputy Assistant Daniel Glaser had visited China and that they were in the process of solving the issue of BDA and North Korea’s funds.
Spokesman Qin said, “Member states of the six party talks are expediting the negotiations morning till night” and added, “We are making efforts to find the right measures in which each country can digest and are continuously propelling the six party talks forward” expressing China’s active participation for a fast resolution.
