Official offers deal to let in inspectors

North Korea’s top nuclear negotiator told a visiting American delegation today that his government would immediately invite United Nations nuclear inspectors into the country if $25 million in disputed funds were released to Pyongyang.

North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan met with Bill Richardson, a Democratic Party presidential candidate, and Anthony Principi, President Bush’s former veteran affairs secretary, who were visiting Pyongyang, the capital.

The North has refused to implement a Feb. 13 disarmament agreement unless it receives $25 million of the regime’s money frozen by Macao authorities after the U.S. blacklisted a Macao bank for allegedly helping Pyongyang launder money.