NORTH KOREA:Free up the cash, then we'll start talking, was the line from the North Korean capital Pyongyang yesterday, after six-party talks in Beijing on implementing a deal to end Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions were extended until tomorrow.
Pyongyang is refusing to move a jot before their frozen assets at a Macao bank were freed up, the latest evidence of the North's incredibly tricky negotiating strategies in these long-running talks.
Senior delegates had met for five minutes, then the South Koreans, who are attending the talks with their cousins from North Korea, as well as the United States, Japan, Russia and China, said simply: "The talks will be extended until tomorrow." The North Koreans refused to attend a number of meetings yesterday and the day before until after its $25 million (€18.8 million) was transferred from Banco Delta Asia in the Chinese territory of Macao to a North Korean account in Beijing.
Christopher Hill, Washington's chief envoy to the talks, was baffled, but said it was a banking issue that needed to be resolved, nothing to do with diplomacy.
Washington had frozen the bank account in the former Portuguese territory because of allegations of money laundering and counterfeiting by the secretive Stalinist regime. Macao authorities said the money would be transferred into a North Korean account, but by yesterday the funds had yet to be delivered.
It's a jarring reminder of just how problematic a process it is going to be to implement the deal struck last month with North Korea, which shocked the world last October when it conducted its first atomic weapons test.
Under the terms of the deal struck on February 13th, North Korea agreed to shut down and seal its Yongbyon nuclear complex and accept UN inspectors within 60 days. Within the same timeframe, the almost bankrupt country would receive 50,000 tons of heavy fuel for energy use from the other parties.
The current round of talks take place halfway through the 60-day time limit, and these negotiations are also due to discuss stage two of the de-nuclearisation deal, under which North Korea will provide a complete declaration of all its nuclear programmes and disable all its existing nuclear facilities. In return, Pyongyang would obtain economic, energy and humanitarian assistance up to the equivalent of one million tons of heavy fuel oil.
However, there is no timetable for the second phase and little by way of details. Resolving the funds issue was not part of the deal as originally concluded, but it is clear that the North Koreans see the funds as an important part of the negotiations regardless.
There is much speculation about why the North Koreans are making such a big deal over what is a comparatively small sum - some say it is the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's private emergency stash in case he is deposed and forced to flee.
Analysts believe the move is pure negotiating tactics, designed to show that North Korea is happy to play out the talks at its own pace, like a chess game.
Everything had started so promisingly on Monday, with Washington announcing it had resolved the long-running financial sanctions dispute that had been the major stumbling block in the forum, and everything looked set to conclude on schedule yesterday.