North Korea's negotiator for the six-party talks Kim Kye-gwan arrives at Beijing's airport on Monday. North Korea has agreed to resume six-country talks aimed at winding up its nuclear arms program soon./Reuters-Newsis N.Korea 'Ready to Suspend Nuclear Activities' Six-Party Talks Likely to Resume Soon N.Korea, U.S. 'Reached Agreement' in Berlin Talks How the U.S. Sees Seoul's N.Korea Policy What Agreement Did N.Korea and U.S. Reach? N.Korea Reports ‘Positive Shift’ in U.S. Attitude on Nukes Seoul, Beijing to Put N. Korea Reward Package in Writing Nuke Deal May Include Freeing N. Korea Funds Seoul 'Won't Be Content With Nuclear Freeze' in N.Korea Six-Party Nuclear Talks Set for Feb. 8 There's Danger in Bilateral N. Korea-U.S. Talks No Progress in Talks on N.Korea Financial Sanctions

A U.S. official on Monday confirmed a Yonhap report that a senior official from Seoul explained the five accounts in detail to John Negroponte, the director of National Intelligence and deputy secretary of state-designate. As the man in charge of intelligence, Negroponte is hardly the standard diplomatic channel in the State Department. The U.S. official did not reveal who the Korean official was, but strongly hinted he was among a group who recently visited the U.S.

The U.S. official said Washington agrees that the five accounts are not evidently related to the drug trade, money laundering, U.S. dollar counterfeiting or other illicit activities. Since they were believed to have been raised through normal trade deals, the U.S. is considering unfreezing them to provide North Korea with a chance to start dismantling its nuclear program. He ruled out that the money in the accounts is part of the cash Seoul paid North Korea via Hyundai to make the historic 2000 inter-Korean summit happen.

Earlier, North Korea’s top nuclear envoy Kim Kye-gwan indicated North Korea and the U.S. reached a degree of understanding on the unfreezing of some accounts with the Macau bank. Asked whether there was progress in discussions about the U.S. financial sanctions during a recent meeting with his U.S. counterpart in Berlin, Kim hinted in Moscow on Sunday that North Korea won concession from the U.S. The envoy said the issue “should be included in the progress... Of course." One of the results of his Berlin meeting with Christopher Hill was agreement that the issue “should not be evaded.” “So we feel good,” he added. Pyongyang has demanded that Washington settle the issue before the North starts dismantling its nuclear program.

(englishnews@chosun.com )