U.S. Treasury Department Deputy Assistant Secretary of Treasury Danny Glaser will be in Macao to discuss with the Macanese authorities over the frozen assets of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), U.S. officials said on Thursday.

Glaser will consult with the Macanese authorities, provide them with all the information "so that they can make a fully informed decision as to the final disposition of the funds that are in those accounts," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

"So it will now soon be in the hands of the Macanese authorities, once they have all of this information that they can possibly have," McCormack said.

Glaser is expected to hold talks with the Macanese authorities on Saturday.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced on Wednesday a plan to resolve the financial dispute with the DPRK by formally barring U. S. financial institutions from dealing with the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia (BDA).

This move will clear the way for the DPRK to recover at least some of the frozen funds in the bank. A total of some 25 million U. S. dollars are frozen in the Macau bank.

As part of the nuclear deal reached during the six-party talks in Beijing on Feb. 13, the United States agreed to settle the financial dispute with the DPRK within 30 days. The United States has accused the DPRK of using the bank to launder illegal earnings and the DPRK has urged the United States to lift the sanctions.

The United States slapped sanctions on Banco Delta Asia in 2005 and put it on a money-laundering blacklist, prompting Macau to freeze the 24 million dollars believed to belong to the DPRK. In return, the DPRK boycotted the subsequent six-party talks for more than one year.

Source: Xinhua