Push for Remittance of Funds to Italy and Russia
Wu Dawei says that all will be resolved by mid-next week
It seems that North Korea has made requests to transfer it’s funds caught in Macau’s Banco Delta Asia to accounts in Italy and Russia.
On the 30th, the Kyodo News reported that China’s Deputy Foreign Minister Wu Dawei in the meeting with former Japanese Foreign Minister Koumura Masahiko said that North Korea made a request to transfer the $25mn of its funds frozen in BDA to other accounts in Italy and Russia.
Further, Deputy Foreign Minister Wu Dawei revealed that Macau authorities had begun investigations to see whether or not North Korea’s request was technically possible.
Regarding this, a BDA affiliate said, “Around the 27th, North Korea made a request in relation to the transfer of funds and Macau’s financial authorities began preparations on BDA” and “There is a high chance that the transfer of North Korea’s funds will be finalized in the near future.”
Also, the U.S. once revealed that it would actively cooperate in the transfer of North Korea’s funds. On the 27th, U.S. President Bush emphasized, “There are irregularities in the way North Korea safeguards the Feb. 13 Agreement. The financial issue must be clearly resolved for North Korea.”
As a result, heads are cautiously rising as affiliated countries lead discussions on specific action and hope for the remittance issue to be truly resolved by mid-next week.
However, the issue is not as simple as it sounds. As some analysts argue, North Korea’s underlying motive is the normalization of international financial transactions and not the release of $25mn.
Though Deputy Foreign Minister Wu Dawei is also conducting technical investigations on the smooth transfer of funds to Italy and Russian, no one is sure how long this will take.
If the transfer occurs through the third countries as requested by North Korea, we can then expect the disablement and abolition measures regarding the Yongbyun nuclear facilities initially promised by April 14th to be executed in the not to distant future and for North Korea to send an invitation to the IAEA to conduct inspections soon.
