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Macau govt returns control to bank at centre of NKorea row
Real estate news By AFP
Sep 27, 2007
The Macau bank, which had held millions of dollars in North Korea assets stalling a nuclear disarmament for months, can resume control of its operations, government officials said Friday. Banco Delta Asia (BDA) has been taken over by the Macau Monetary Authority since late 2005 after the United States declared it a "primary money laundering concern" and froze 25 million dollars in assets belonging to North Korea. The assets had been unfrozen in June this year. The Authority now said its intervention measures on the lender expired Friday.
Due to the "remarkable improvement" made in the bank?s management by the government, the Macau authorities said it will return control of BDA to chairman, Stanley Au, with effect from Saturday. "The Monetary Authority will, as usual, perform the necessary supervisory duties to safeguard the interests of depositors and to maintain the stability of the financial system of (the government)," it said in a statement.
North Korea, which tested an atom bomb last year, in February agreed to a breakthrough six-nation deal to shut down its reactor in return for aid and diplomatic benefits. But it had failed to comply due to the row over the cash that was frozen two years ago. In a complex US-brokered deal, the cash was reportedly being transferred to the New York Federal Reserve, then to the Russian central bank and onwards to a private Russian bank where cash-strapped North Korea has an account.
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