Thursday, July 27, 2006 (599 reads)

by Danny Kemp


KUALA LUMPUR, July 27, 2006 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived for a regional security forum in Malaysia Thursday holding out little hope that North Korea would return to stalled talks on its nuclear weapons. Rice said en route to Kuala Lumpur from a failed Middle East peace conference in Rome that she did not anticipate any resumption here of the six-nation talks that have been on ice since November. Her North Korean counterpart, Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun, was due here later Thursday, with no indication that he would respond to diplomatic efforts to get the communist country to the negotiating table. "I don't anticipate any six-party talks," she told reporters aboard her plane. Top US nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill said the other five countries involved -- South Korea, Japan, China, the United States and Russia -- were willing to take part but the North was "lost on the way." "We tried to invite the DPRK to come to a six-party meeting and they showed no interest and I think we therefore are unfortunately not going to be able to have any kind of six-party meeting here," Hill told reporters, referring to the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. However, China remained optimistic that its high-profile campaign to bring North Korea back to the meeting table still had a chance of success. "We very much hope that North Korea will participate," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu. North Korea, which has already dominated an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers meeting this week, walked out of the three-year-old talks last year in protest over US financial sanctions. Pyongyang provoked further outrage as well as condemnation by the UN Security Council when it test-fired seven missiles on July 5 that splashed into the Sea of Japan (East Sea). Rice has said that while in Malaysia she would follow up on the North Korea issue with the other participants in the six-way talks. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is also due in Kuala Lumpur along with the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana. Police said snipers, sniffer dogs and hundreds of police were in place around the conference venue next to Kuala Lumpur's iconic Petronas towers. The South Korean, Japanese and Chinese foreign ministers joined forces Wednesday and Thursday to breathe life into the nuclear talks, despite underlying bilateral tensions. "The two most important things for us are that North Korea should not take extra measures to worsen the situation and also that the six-way nuclear talks should resume as soon as possible," officials quoted South Korean foreign minister and potential future UN chief Ban Ki-Moon as saying. The Asian powers and the United States have been considering other ways to tackle the issue, although they have disagreed about going ahead without North Korea, with both China and South Korea opposing such a move. US envoy Hill suggested that the talks could be broadened to include other countries, following a South Korean suggestion for multilateral talks also including Malaysia, Australia and Canada. "We are hoping to have a broader discussion on security in Northeast Asia," he said. China, North Korea's major ally, warned late Wednesday it was "seriously concerned" about the situation on the Korean peninsula. Earlier it had said that Friday was pencilled in as a potential date for the talks. Pyongyang dramatically upped the stakes this week, branding Rice a "political imbecile" in retaliation for her description of the missile launches as "completely irresponsible" and "dangerous." Meanwhile the US Secretary of State will face renewed pressure on the Middle East in Asia even as she canvasses support for US positions on North Korea, Myanmar and Iran's nuclear ambitions. Asian ministers have condemned Tuesday's Israeli air strike on a United Nations post in southern Lebanon, which killed four UN observers, and said they would raise the issue with Rice. bur-dk/sls/mc



ASEAN-NKOREA - 07/27/2006 15:32 - AFP
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Service: World News (ASI)
 

Wednesday, July 19, 2006 (374 reads)

WASHINGTON, July 19, 2006 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will look to make up for lost time next week on her debut at Southeast Asia's top security forum, after dismaying regional leaders last year by staying away. Rice will canvass support for US positions on North Korea, Myanmar and Iran's nuclear programs, as she turns her focus from the Middle East to Asia. She will meet Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ministers in Kuala Lumpur on July 27, and join the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) the next day, with counterparts from key players including Japan, Russia, China, and South Korea.    Last year Rice slighted the talks, sending her deputy Robert Zoellick, who has since announced he will step down. It was the first time since 1994 that the US secretary of state had been missing from the gathering, but analysts said her absence did not seriously dent US relations with ASEAN. "I don't think there is permanent damage, (but) if she had skipped it again they would have started look askew at us," said Dana Dillon of the Heritage Foundation think-tank. Dillon said the negative response that Rice spurred last year may have paradoxically improved US ties with the region. "It forced her to re-examine the relationship with Southeast Asia because of the negative response ... it turned out for the better."    Rice hopes to "further the international response to North Korea's missile launches and pursuit of nuclear weapons (and) Iran's nuclear programs," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said last week. She wants Asian allies to tackle the "lack of progress toward real democracy and national reconciliation in Burma (Myanmar)," he said. ARF looks set to break new ground over Myanmar, which Washington vilifies for stifling democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.    US secretaries of state used to turn up at the ARF in finger-wagging mode, chiding ASEAN for shielding Myanmar. Rice's no-show last year was seen in some quarters as a gesture of disappointment at ASEAN's stance on Myanmar, though sources here suggested it had more to do with placating Zoellick, a Bush loyalist and Asia expert deprived of a cabinet post. The US-Myanmar dynamic has changed, even since Rice's visit to South Korea for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum late last year, which saw her rebuke ASEAN for not doing enough to censure Yangon.   

Lately, ASEAN nations have shown signs of frustration with Myanmar. Malaysia's state Bernama news agency Sunday quoted ASEAN secretary general Ong Keng Yong as saying ministers would take a "position" reflecting worries on how the junta tarnished the grouping's credibility. "This issue affects ASEAN's credibility and image," he said. ASEAN's evolution on Myanmar has been noticed in Washington. "Now they have really turned it ... the statement a couple of days ago was really indicative," said Jeremy Woodrum of the US Campaign for Burma. "They have had to make a decision: 'Is our relationship with Burma more important than our relationship with the US or the EU?'" Dillon said Rice must try to harness converging positions to hike pressure on the junta. "We have coordinated our policies with Europe but never with the ASEAN countries," he said.

US prestige in Asia was salvaged when the UN Security Council adopted an unexpectedly robust resolution condeming North Korea's missile tests. Sanctions preventing the Stalinist state from buying or selling missile technology won the backing of China, seen as one of the few states with influence over Pyongyang. Rice said Pyongyang now had "no choice" but to return to stalled six-party talks on a nuclear showdown. The resolution spared her the task of defending the six-party process, which last week appeared riven with divisions. Now she will push ARF, and Japan, China and South Korea in other planned stops during her Asia trip, to take next steps. Following her visit to Malaysia, Rice is due in Vietnam. ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. col/fgf/mc