N. Korea outlines condition for inspections

PYONGYANG, North Korea – North Korea’s top nuclear negotiator told a visiting American delegation today that his government would immediately invite U.N. inspectors into the country if $25 million in disputed North Korean funds are released to Pyongyang, U.S. officials said.

North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan met with Bill Richardson, a Democratic U.S. presidential candidate, and Anthony Principi, President Bush’s former veteran affairs secretary, who were visiting Pyongyang.

Kim “indicated that the North Korean government would invite the … inspectors back the moment the funds are released to the North Korean government,” Principi told reporters after the meeting. Kim also told the U.S. delegation of the difficulty of shutting down the regime’s main nuclear reactor by a Saturday deadline called for in a February nuclear disarmament accord, he said.

The delegation, which also includes Victor Cha, Bush’s top adviser on North Korea, is on a four-day trip to recover remains of American servicemen killed in the Korean War. Richardson, governor of New Mexico and a former ambassador to the U.N., said Sunday he had no intention of negotiating nuclear matters.

There has been little progress in implementing the landmark Feb. 13 nuclear agreement in which North Korea promised to take initial steps toward dismantling its nuclear program.

North Korea has refused to move forward because of the delayed transfer of $25 million in the regime’s money frozen by Macau authorities after the U.S. blacklisted a bank in that Chinese administrative region in 2005 for allegedly helping launder money.

Last week, the State Department said that a hitch stalling the release of the funds had been resolved, potentially clearing the way for the disbursement of the money. No details were released on the possible transfer.