The United States and Japan expect North Korea to keep to an agreement to begin work on scrapping its nuclear weapons programme, US president George W Bush said yesterday.
"We expect the North Koreans to honour agreements," Mr Bush said, standing alongside Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe at the G8 summit.
North Korea has demanded that once-frozen funds languishing in a Macau bank be transferred before it acts on February's agreement.
The $25 million at Banco Delta Asia was blocked after the US blacklisted the bank, accusing it of laundering illicit funds for the secretive communist state. Mr Abe expressed concern North Korea had not taken steps to implement the agreement.
"There is a limit to our patience," Japanese officials quoted him as saying to Mr Bush during their bilateral talks on the sidelines of G8. The two leaders agreed G8 should send a "strong message" to North Korea, Abe told reporters after the talks.
"With strong international co-operation, North Korea has fewer and fewer escape routes," he told reporters.
