W Asia strife puts Rice NE Asia tour in limbo

Washington, July 20: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's planned tour of northeast Asia to discuss North Korea's nuclear ambitions and missiles appears to have been derailed by surging violence in the West Asia.

The State Department announced last week that Rice would visit Japan, China, and South Korea -- key diplomatic players on North Korea -- as well as Vietnam and Malaysia, the host this year of the annual ASEAN Regional Forum.

As Israel battled Hizbollah in Lebanon for an eighth day, Rice said she would travel to the West Asia but did not say when. Reports have emerged that she would scrap the northeast Asian leg to allow for the crisis trip.

Rice declined yesterday to answer a question about when she would travel to the Middle East and her aides said she had made no final decision on the timing.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack declined to comment on Rice's reported itinerary changes, but indicated the top US diplomat would still be attending later this month the ASEAN Regional Forum, the region's premier diplomatic event.

''There are going to be opportunities at the ASEAN as well as ARF meetings for bilateral contacts and groups to get together to talk about the North Korea issue,'' he said.

Rice is slated to meet foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations on July 27 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and then attend the ARF, an expanded meeting of ASEAN and its diplomatic partners, on July 28.

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon was quoted by media in his country as saying the Rice was likely to cancel her visit to Seoul to deal with the Middle East.

''In that case, we will look into holding a foreign ministers' meeting at the ASEAN Regional Forum,'' South Korean newspapers quoted him as saying.

Diplomats from northeast Asian countries on Rice's itinerary said they were waiting for official word on her schedule and had seen only media reports she would cancel.

Five-Party Talks?

The last time a U.S. Secretary of State attended the forum, diplomacy over North Korea's nuclear programs took center stage as Colin Powell met North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun in the first such high-level meeting for years.

Paek was expected in Kuala Lumpur. Ban said that if Paek showed up, all parties to nuclear talks -- the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States -- could meet.

If Paek failed to show, the five countries could meet to work out policies to coax North Korea back to talks it has boycotted since November, Ban suggested. The five were expected also to discuss follow-up moves to the North's July 4 ballistic missile tests.

Asked about the proposed five-party meeting, McCormack said he had no details on specific talks, but added: ''You can be certain that North Korea is going to be a topic of heavy discussions at these meetings.'' Asian experts said the Kuala Lumpur meetings would not fully substitute for actual visits, but that Rice could reschedule after dealing with the Israel-Lebanon crisis.

''With rockets flying and people dying, Middle East diplomacy has got to be a priority and I think northeast Asia will understand,'' said Derek Mitchell, an Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Rice's decision to go to the ASEAN meeting, which she was criticized for skipping last year and sending a deputy, would help bolster US ties with a region that China has courted aggressively with high-level visits and trade deals, he said.

Reuters