BEIJING, March 17: North Korea warned on Saturday it would not shut a nuclear plant until the United States lifted banking curbs, while Washington’s envoy maintained the bank issue would not kill a budding disarmament deal.

Pyongyang’s envoy Kim Kye-gwan issued his warning after arriving in Beijing for fresh six-party talks aimed at advancing a month-old agreement to shut the North’s key nuclear plant.

“If the Banco Delta Asia financial sanctions are not completely lifted, we are not going to stop our nuclear development programme,” Kim told reporters.

“What I mean is the initial steps. We are not going to stop the operation of the Yongbyon nuclear facility.”

The long-running six-party talks reached a breakthrough accord on Feb 13 giving North Korea 60 days to shut Yongbyon in return for aid and security pledges. Washington also agreed to defuse within 30 days Pyongyang’s complaints about a crackdown on Macau’s Banco Delta Asia (BDA), which the US Treasury Department accused of harbouring illegal North Korean earnings.

The Treasury on Wednesday formally banned US banks doing business with BDA, ending its inquiry and opening the way for Macau, a self-administered enclave under indirect Chinese control, to free North Korean accounts found to be above board.

China has criticised the Treasury decision, citing concerns about Macau’s financial stability and the disarmament process.

But the United States’ chief negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, played down Kim’s words and stressed he was hopeful about the direction of the nuclear deal.

“I continue to believe that we will not have a problem on this issue in terms of the six-party talks,” he told reporters on Saturday evening in Beijing, after meetings that included North Korean officials, but not Kim.

“I think we would expect money to be moving very quickly in terms of completing this case,” Hill said. He said he explained the US bank move to North Korean officials and they told him they would report back to Pyongyang.

Daniel Glaser, the US Treasury’s negotiator on the bank dispute, spelled out Washington’s conclusions to Macau officials on Saturday. —Reuters