BEIJING, March 21 (UPI) -- For a second day, North Korea refused Wednesday to attend six-nation talks in Beijing on its nuclear program because funds haven't shown up in the bank.
Negotiators from South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States expressed frustration with the boycott, which began Tuesday. As part of concessions for Pyongyang to shut down its nuclear reactors, the United States announced Monday it had unfrozen about $25 million of North Korea's money in a bank in Macau. By Wednesday, it hadn't shown up in one of the country's Beijing bank accounts, the Yonhap news agency reported.
U.S. chief negotiator Christopher Hill expressed frustration with the delay.
"Certainly I think the issue of the nuclear weapons is a serious one and I don't believe it's in the (North Koreans') interest to hold up discussions on that over bank questions," Hill told reporters. "You can't expect all these large delegations to sit around while it's being sorted out."
Chief Russian delegate Alexander Losyukov said he planned to fly home to Moscow Thursday, the Kyodo news agency reported.
