BEIJING -- The U.S. envoy to talks aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear programs met with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing today, making a fresh push to resolve a financial dispute that has snarled the disarmament process.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said he and Chinese nuclear envoy Wu Dawei agreed that North Korea appeared ready to follow through on a February agreement committing it to shutting down its main Yongbyon nuclear reactor in exchange for energy aid.

"Once they have their funds from the bank, they are prepared to do their part of the bargain, which is to shut down the Yongbyon plant," Hill said, referring to a financial dispute involving North Korean funds, earlier frozen in a Macau bank accused by the U.S. of aiding Pyongyang in money laundering and counterfeiting.

The U.S. helped unfreeze the $25 million being held in Banco Delta Asia, but the money's transfer has been delayed because foreign banks are unwilling to touch the funds.

The North has made the resolution of the banking dispute an absolute precondition for nuclear disarmament.

Hill rejected a suggestion that the six-party disarmament negotiations, stalled since February, were dead.

"It's certainly not dead," he said. "Certainly we have a pretty serious bump in the road here, we plan to get over it ... It really is a technical matter, which cannot just be solved through political means."

Hill exchanged ideas with Wu on ways to resolve the matter but gave no specific details.

Pyongyang boycotted international negotiations for more than a year over the release of the funds, and conducted a nuclear test in October. Last week, it launched at least one short-range missile into coastal waters — a move played down by Seoul and Washington as part of the North's regular military drills.

He said earlier he also planned to discuss with the Chinese how to get inspectors from the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog to North Korea — part of the dismantlement process outlined in the February pact.

Wu and Hill, who was in China on a one-day stopover, also discussed China-U.S. relations and the issues of climate change and the Darfur crisis.

Meanwhile in Seoul, U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow said Washington was "prepared to move forward toward the establishment of normal relations with the DPRK," using the abbreviation of the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.