U.S. expects North Korea to shut reactor in 3 weeks

One obstacle to implementing a deal to disable Pyongyang's program appeared to have been removed when Russia confirmed $25 million in North Korea funds, frozen in Macau at the behest of Washington, had been transferred to a Russian bank.

"At this time the transfer of North Korean money from Macau to a Russian commercial bank has been completed," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said in a statement on Saturday.

"We consider that the participants of the six-party process will now be able to move towards practical actions aimed at realizing the Beijing agreements of February 13, 2007."

Interfax news agency reported a Finance Ministry official as saying the full amount had been transferred into a North Korean account at Khabarovsk-based Dalkombank.

North Korea said on Saturday it would begin implementing the nuclear disarmament deal it had agreed with top regional powers on February 13 as soon as it recovered the funds.

Under the deal, Pyongyang agreed to shut down Yongbyon, the source of its weapons-grade plutonium, in exchange for energy aid. The deal was brokered at six-party talks with the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

Hill, who visited the isolated East Asian state this week, said the next round of six-party talks would be held after the closing of Yongbyon began, most likely in the early part of July.

MEETING ON MONITORING

The closing of the reactor would take place after North Korea agreed on the monitoring of the operation with the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Hill told reporters in Tokyo.