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After the six-party talks stalled over the delay, BOC officials agreed with U.S. negotiators to receive the US$25 million from BDA and send them on to a bank in a third country. China's chief negotiator Wu Dawei then asked South Korea to allow a North Korean branch of a South Korean bank to receive the money from the Chinese bank, but a government official here said that it would be out of the question for Seoul to accept the request.

The countries are now discussing a solution like letting North Korea directly withdraw the funds in cash or enabling the Macau bank to send the money direct to Pyongyang if finding a third-country bank willing to cooperate proves too difficult. South Korea's nuclear envoy Chun Yung-woo said, “It is a matter of days, but not an issue that can be resolved today or tomorrow, so the parties decided to recess for now.”

(englishnews@chosun.com )