BBC
3/16/2007
South Korea is to resume shipments of fertiliser aid to the North later this month in a further sign of progress after a recently-agreed nuclear deal.
The South Korean Red Cross said the first of some 50 shipments would be sent on 27 March.
Seoul had suspended humanitarian aid to its secretive Communist neighbour after Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile tests.
Separately, the ending of a US probe into a bank linked to North Korea has been welcomed by a pro-Pyongyang paper.
The Japan-based Choson Sinbo described as a “very positive sign” the US Treasury’s announcement that it had ended its 18-month investigation into the Macau bank Banco Delta Asia (BDA).
The US found the BDA complicit in alleged North Korean money-laundering and counterfeiting activities and has barred the bank from accessing the US banking system.
But the Treasury decision does mean the Macau authorities could now remove the bank from receivership and return some of North Korea’s money.
North Korea had insisted the freeze on its assets – estimated to be up to $25m (£13m) – be lifted as part of any agreement on ending its nuclear programme.
“We can call this a truly epochal event because the most arrogant and violent regime ever in the United States did so as if it knelt before a small country in the east,” the Choson Sinbo said.
While North Korea itself has yet to comment on the US Treasury decision, China on Thursday said it “deeply regretted” the move.
The BDA denies it ever intentionally handled illicit funds.
‘Fully committed’
Nuclear negotiators are in Beijing for preparatory discussions ahead of more high-level talks next week.
They will discuss progress on the agreement of 13 February, which was reached during talks involving the two Koreas, China, the US, Japan and Russia.
Under the deal, the North has pledged to “shut down and seal” its Yongbyon nuclear reactor within 60 days in exchange for energy aid.
The UN nuclear chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, travelled to North Korea earlier this week to discuss the resumption of international inspections.
He said Pyongyang was still “fully committed” to giving up its nuclear programme.
Since 13 February various bilateral meetings have been taking place.
The two Koreas held their first talks in several months soon after the nuclear deal was reached, and discussed a number of issues including the resumption of reunions for families split since the division of the Korean peninsula.
But Seoul had linked the resumption of deliveries of rice and fertiliser to North Korean progress on dismantling its nuclear programme in accordance with the February deal.
South Korea’s Red Cross chief Han Wang-sang said the organisation would send its first shipment of 300,000 tonnes of fertiliser on 27 March.
“It will take about three months to complete the whole process, which will consist of about 50 separate shipments,” he said.
The fertiliser shipments will arrive in time for the impoverished North’s spring planting season.
