SEOUL, June 16: North Korea on Saturday invited UN atomic inspectors to discuss the shutdown of its reactor, saying a banking dispute with the United States which had blocked a nuclear disarmament pact is almost over.

Country’s atomic energy chief Ri Je Son wrote to the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, about procedures for verifying the shutdown, the state Korean Central News Agency reported.

“He in the letter noted that a working-level delegation of the IAEA has been invited to visit the DPRK (North Korea) as it is confirmed that the process of de-freezing the funds of the DPRK at the Banco Delta Asia (BDA) in Macau has reached its final phase,” the agency said.

Ri Je, director-general of the General Department of Atomic Energy, asked the IAEA to discuss verifying and monitoring “the suspension of the operations” of Yongbyon under the February 13 six-nation agreement.

North Korea staged its first nuclear test last October. It has said previously it would start honouring the February pact as soon as it receives $25 million in funds which had been frozen in BDA since 2005 at US instigation.

Saturday’s report did not make a firm commitment to shut the reactor, which produces the raw material for bomb-making plutonium. But it raised hopes the hardline communist state will honour the deal when it gets its cash.

The money was transferred on Thursday to the New York Federal Reserve, from where it was to be sent on to a private Russian bank at which North Korea has an account.

US chief nuclear envoy Christopher Hill, who is visiting Mongolia for an international forum, was quoted on Saturday as saying technical problems occurred as the funds were sent to the Russian bank.

However, Hill said he believed the problems would be resolved by Monday.

Six-nation nuclear negotiations could resume early next month, he was quoted as saying.

Under the deal, the North was to shut down and seal Yongbyon in the presence of IAEA inspectors in return for 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil to be supplied by South Korea. It was also to discuss a list of all its nuclear programmes, including plutonium already extracted from Yongbyon’s spent fuel rods.

Under a second phase North Korea, which has worked for decades to develop a nuclear bomb, would disable all its nuclear programmes in return for another 950,000 tons of oil or equivalent aid, and major diplomatic benefits.

A September 2005 deal with similar terms went nowhere when the US Treasury Department that month said the North’s funds in BDA were the suspected proceeds of money-laundering and counterfeiting.

The funds were frozen and the Treasury Department later banned any US institutions from dealing with the Macau bank, which protested its innocence.

In an effort to get the stalled nuclear pact moving the US unfroze the funds in March, but had problems finding an international bank to handle the transfer of apparently tainted cash.-—AFP