NKorea to take charge at Asia security forum

Kuala Lumpur, Jul 23: North Korea will take centre-stage at a meeting of Asian and Western powers in Malaysia this week, but there is little optimism for a breakthrough in their standoff over the reclusive state's nuclear programme.

Preparations for the ASEAN Regional Forum, where Southeast Asian nations host talks with the world's major powers, have already revealed discord over the issue, with Japan pushing for a sternly worded communique.

''We want a statement to condemn the missile tests,'' a Japanese diplomat said, referring to North Korea's July five tests that angered the international community, particularly Tokyo.

''ASEAN is preparing a statement but it will not include this North Korean issue because Malaysia is worried that if they push North Korea too hard they won't attend the meeting.'' Malaysia, hosting the summit as chair of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), has said the gathering would be an ideal venue for progress on the North Korean issue because it brings together all six parties engaged in the issue.

North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun is due to attend the talks along with U S Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.

''If we could have a six-party meeting in Kuala Lumpur, I would be very happy to attend,'' Rice was quoted at the weekend as telling Asian reporters in a Washington briefing.

Six-party talks stalled last November after North Korea objected to U S financial sanctions based on accusations that it counterfeited U S currency and trafficked drugs. Washington also wants the North to abandon its nuclear weapons activities.

SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS

''The prospects are decent for (six-party) talks,'' said Peter Beck, Seoul-based director for the International Crisis Group, a thinktank, noting that ASEAN was neutral territory. ''But in terms of actual progress, I think the prospects are very low.'' Malaysia has said it is excited about the prospect of renewed six-party talks in Kuala Lumpur and appears to be doing its best to encourage contact between North Korea and its neighbours.

The host is accommodating the North Korean, Japanese, Russian and Chinese foreign ministers in the same hotel, maximising chances for impromptu meetings around lifts and the hotel lobby.

Last December, at another ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur, Japanese and Chinese leaders made headlines with a chance encounter, though differing accounts of their chat in a summit waiting-room led to even more rancour between the two. Ties between Japan and China are strained over their war-time past, and ASEAN has voiced concern that frostiness between two of its closest partners could sour its other efforts, which include ad-hoc talks this week on developing an East Asian Community.

ASEAN hosted the first East Asian summit in December, but the jury is out on whether it has the cohesiveness to eventually become, as some nations hope, a huge free-trade area encompassing half the world's population and a fifth of global trade.

ASEAN will also grapple this week with the issue of Myanmar, which has become an embarrassment to the group. ASEAN has pledged itself to democracy and human rights, but Myanmar's military rulers have shown little sign of loosening their grip on power.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar suggested ASEAN might decide this week to pass responsibility for dealing with Myanmar's lack of democratic reform to the United Nations which, he admits, has managed to open more doors in Yangon than ASEAN.

The ASEAN Regional Forum is also expected to discuss the Israel-Lebanon war and also terrorism, after train bombings in Mumbai, killed more than 180 people this month.

It will also discuss energy security and might sign agreements on combatting cyber-terrorism and on ensuring civil-military cooperation in disaster relief, using lessons learnt from Asia's December 2004 tsunami, an ASEAN official said.

About 230,000 people were killed or went missing in the tsunami, mostly in Indonesia. The relief effort that followed revealed problems in coordinating civil and military operations. Some equipment, such as radios, were not compatible.

ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The regional forum brings in Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, South and North Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Timor Leste and the United States.

REUTERS

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