BEIJING (AFP) — China Development Bank denied Wednesday a report that it plans a 10 billion dollar fund with a North Korean investment group to help Chinese firms build infrastructure in the impoverished country.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Tuesday that the deal was forged last week between the North's Daepung Investment Group, based in Hong Kong, and state-run China Development Bank.
"The news is completely wrong. There is no such thing," Yang Huang, Beijing-based spokeswoman of China Development Bank, told AFP.
She also said the lender, one of China's three policy banks, has no plan to set up such a fund.
China is North Korea's biggest trading partner and an important provider of food and fuel.
The North started disabling its nuclear programme this month under an international pact and has urged Washington to remove it from a list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The designation prevents it from receiving US economic assistance and blocks loans from the World Bank and other multilateral organisations.
If the North goes on to dismantle atomic facilities and give up its plutonium stockpile and any nuclear weapons, it can expect normalised relations with Washington and a further lifting of sanctions.
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