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Little now stands in the way of North Korea moving toward nuclear disarmament as the United States has taken steps to resolve its key grievance: resolution of a financial sanctions dispute, Washington's top nuclear envoy said Friday On Wednesday, Washington officially barred U.S. banks from having any ties with Banco Delta Asia (BDA), a Macau-based bank accused of money-laundering for North Korea, a move that will open the way for Pyongyang to reclaim its frozen assets of US$24 million from the bank.

The bank has yet to announce its follow-up action on the U.S. decision. North Korea has warned that it would not fully honor its promise to shut down its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon unless all of its frozen money at the bank is released.

However, Christopher Hill, the top U.S. nuclear envoy, said he believed that the North will soon meet its end of the Feb. 13 deal under which it should take steps toward denuclerarization in return for energy aid and diplomatic incentives.

"I think they want assurances" that BDA issue is resolved, Hill told reporters as he emerged from a one-hour meeting with Mohammed ElBaradei, the chief U.N. nuclear inspector who has just returned from a two-day visit to North Korea.

"We can give them assurances that it is resolved," Hill said, adding that he hasn't had any chance to talk to North Koreans since the U.S. made the announcement on the Macau bank.

A South Korean official later said a North Korean official who attended a working group session in Beijing on Friday expressed that his country wants to become a normal state.

"North Korea said it wishes to make friends with the United States and Japan by normalizing ties with them and become a responsible member of the international community," the South Korean official told reporters, requesting anonymity.

Hill met the the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with his South Korean counterpart, Chun Yung-woo, and Japanese officials.

The U.S. envoy expressed confidence that North Koreans "will fulfill their commitments" under the Feb. 13 accord with South Korea, the U.S., Japan, China and Russia.

ElBaradei was quoted by South Korean officials as saying that North Koreans are "fully committed" to the Feb. 13 agreement and that "they are ready to work with his agency to make sure that we monitor and verify the shutdown of the Yongbyon facility."

Under the nuclear agreement, Pyongyang has to shut down and seal its key nuclear facilities at Yongbyon and have the process verified by IAEA inspectors within 60 days. The other five nations will begin to ship 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid once the shutdown is verified, according to Chun.

According to the agreement on the phased disarmament of North Korea, the communist state is to permanently disable its Yongbyon facilities and submit a complete list of all its nuclear programs to the IAEA in exchange for an additional 950,000 tons of heavy oil or other economic and humanitarian aid of equal value.

Hill said the limited time for the North to take the first-phase steps prevented the IAEA chief from discussing what needs to be done during the second phase.

He, however, said he has called the IAEA chief's attention to the need to address the North's suspected uranium enrichment program soon.

"I did raise again that we need to run the program to ground, that is we need to understand all aspects of that and that understanding all aspects of the HEU (Highly Enriched Uranium) program is important before the DPRK makes its complete declaration of nuclear programs," he told reporters.

The DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

A new round of the six-nation nuclear talks is set to open here on Monday, following working group meetings this week.

Beijing, March 16 (Yonhap News)