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The U.S. government on April 11 cleared the US$25 million for withdrawal, after Macanese authorities in September 2005 froze them when the U.S. designated the bank a “primary money-laundering concern.” But freeing the funds proved harder than expected since no other bank would touch the money, and the delay held up North Korea’s implementation of a Feb. 13 six-nation agreement to shut down its nuclear facilities.

The Macau official said Pyongyang will apparently transfer the money into accounts in Singapore, Vietnam and Mongolia. After pooling the funds from a bevy of BDA accounts in one or two accounts at the Macau bank, it is expected to transfer them to a third-country bank or banks and thence to North Korea. The banks are United Overseas Bank (UOB) in Singapore, the Vietnam Bank for Foreign Trade (Vietcombank), and Golomt Bank of Mongolia, where Pyongyang opened accounts after the BDA accounts were frozen. The $25 million are in eight currencies, including U.S. and Hong Kong dollars, Japanese yen, euro and Swiss francs.

(englishnews@chosun.com )