SEOUL, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Hopes are cautiously running high for progress in upcoming talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programs as Washington and Pyongyang seem to find a compromise over the thorny issue of financial sanctions.
South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Chun Young-woo said Tuesday six-nation nuclear talks are expected to resume no later than Feb. 5. "The date will be decided in the next few days," he told reporters upon returning home from meetings in Beijing with his North Korean and Chinese counterparts.
Chun voiced optimism about the next round of six-party talks, noting a series of bilateral meetings have paved the way for "making progress."
The United States and North Korea were showing flexibility over U.S. financial sanctions, the key sticking point in the nuclear standoff, Chun said at Seoul airport.
Pyongyang has long called for the United States to lift its sanctions on a Macau-based bank that has frozen the North's funds, as a precondition for progress at the six-party nuclear talks.
The United States in September 2005 slapped restrictions on Banco Delta Asia accused of laundering money for North Korea. Under the U.S. measure, BDA has frozen $24 million of the North Korea's holdings in some 50 accounts and cut off transactions with the communist, which is believed to chock off Pyongyang's cash flow.
Washington has rejected the North's demand, saying the financial issue is not relevant to the nuclear talks but a matter to be handled by law-enforcement authorities.
In an angry response, the North left the multilateral dialogue table and launched a volley of missiles in July, which was followed by a bombshell underground nuclear in early October.
Neighboring countries and the United States have been put alert with concerns that North Korea may conduct a second nuclear test or launch a ballistic missile which could be equipped with a nuclear warhead and may be capable of reaching the continental United States.
But North Korea and the United States have reached "certain agreement" at bilateral meetings last week in Berlin.
Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry said the Jan. 16-18 meeting between nuclear envoys from the North and the United States took place "in a positive and sincere atmosphere, and a certain agreement was reached there."
In Beijing, the North's top negotiator Kim Kye Gwan told journalists Tuesday that he was "satisfied" with the Berlin meetings. He also said he had gotten "positive impressions" from his U.S. counterpart Christopher Hill that Washington could change its stance toward the North.
Kim refused to disclose what they talked about in Berlin, but South Korean news reports said the North proposed to halt its nuclear activities and allow international inspectors back into the country to "monitor" its nuclear facilities in return for U.S. moves to lift its financial sanctions.
Seoul's Yonhap News Agency said the United States was considering easing its restriction of North Korean funds believed to have come from legitimate business.
According to the South's largest daily Chosun Ilbo, South Korea has asked for the United States to unfreeze "legitimate" North Korean bank accounts, saying at least five of the 50 accounts with the BDA are from legitimate business.
A Seoul official said Kim Man-bok, the South's intelligence chief made the demand during a recent meeting in Washington with John Negroponte, the director of National Intelligence and deputy secretary of state-designate.
Analysts here also expect progress in the upcoming talks. "Both the United States and North Korea feel the need to make tangible progress in the six-way talks to keep the dialogue momentum," said Nam Sung-wook, a North Korea professor at Korea University.
