TEHRAN, June 20 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's foreign minister said Wednesday Washington had assured Moscow that it would assume all financial risks in transferring North Korea's $25 million unfrozen from a Macao bank.
A Russian bank has agreed to handle the transaction, necessary to clear the way for shutting down Pyongyang's nuclear reaction, after all other banks were reluctant to risk potential U.S. sanctions.
"The Americans appealed to us, we said we would help on a number of conditions," Sergei Lavrov said. "If North Korea is ready to have its funds transferred via a Russian bank and the U.S. provides full guarantees that Russian banks will not face any negative consequences. Those guarantees were given."
The U.S. chief negotiator at the six-nation denuclearization talks with Pyongyang, Chris Hill, said Tuesday the funds had reached the North's accounts in the Russian bank.
The money, blocked in China at a U.S. request over money laundering suspicions, had been transferred via the Federal Reserve, Russia's Central Bank and a bank in the Far East, the final point in the transaction.
Lavrov said Washington had assured the Russian banks they would not face any sanctions over the transaction and pledged to cover all expenses in the event of lawsuits from third countries.
North Korea had promised to seal its Yongbyon reactor producing weapons-grade plutonium as soon as the money had reached the impoverished state. The Communist state said at the weekend it would allow U.N. nuclear inspectors into the country as part of the February 13 deal with the U.S., China, Russia, Japan, and South Korea once the money had been transferred.
As a second phase of the disarmament deal, Pyongyang - which conducted its first nuclear bomb test last October - is expected to provide the negotiators with a list of all its nuclear facilities for their eventual closure.
In return, the reclusive Communist nation is to receive aid, diplomatic contacts, and other incentives.
Hill said in Tokyo Tuesday the next round of six-nation talks could take place in early July.
