North Korea said this morning that the standoff over frozen funds had been resolved and it would now start implementing a nuclear disarmament deal struck in February.
The first step would be to hold discussions in Pyongyang tomorrow with officials of the U.N. nuclear watchdog on shutting down the country's nuclear facilities, North Korea's KCNA news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.
Olli Heinonen, IAEA deputy director
"As the funds that had been frozen at Macau's Banco Delta Asia have been transferred as we demanded, the troublesome issue of the frozen funds is finally resolved," he said.
He said there could now be "action for action": "As part of that, there will be discussions with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) delegates June 26th in Pyongyang on shutting down nuclear facilities and inspections and monitoring."
Earlier, Russia's Dalkombank said $25 million, frozen after the United States accused North Korea of laundering illicit funds for the reclusive country, had been transferred to Pyongyang.
North Korea had refused to honour the disarmament-for-aid deal struck by six countries until it got the money back.
That breakthrough came as an IAEA inspector arrived in China on his way to North Korea, where he hopes to arrange the return of officials to monitor a shutdown of the Yongbyon reactor.
The reactor is the centrepiece of North Korea's nuclear programme and source of weapons-grade plutonium.
In exchange for the shutdown, impoverished North Korea will receive fuel aid and other benefits, including steps to lift trade sanctions and remove it from a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.
"Now we are going to negotiate how to verify and make sure the reactor will be shut down and sealed, so this is the next step on this long trip," Olli Heinonen, the IAEA's deputy director in charge of global nuclear safeguards, told reporters.
Mr Heinonen's four-member team is due to arrive in Pyongyang on Tuesday and is expected to stay for five days in the country. North Korea ejected IAEA inspectors in December 2002 and left the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty shortly afterwards.
In 2005, North Korea announced it had nuclear weapons. Last year, the country test-detonated its first nuclear device, drawing widespread condemnation and UN financial and arms sanctions.