S. Korean FM to attend ASEAN Regional Forum in Phuket

By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, July 20 (Yonhap) -- South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan was to
leave for Thailand later Monday to attend this year's session of the ASEAN
Regional Forum (ARF), at which North Korea is expected to be one of the main
topics.
The minister plans to use Asia's largest security forum to explain Seoul's
position on the North's nuclear ambitions and drum up support from the
international community, his aides said.
North Korea has often dispatched its top diplomat to the event, which groups 10
ASEAN member countries and 17 other nations. The participants include the U.S.,
China, Russia, Japan, and the two Koreas who make up the six-way talks on
denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.
Pyongyang's foreign minister, however, is unlikely to attend this year's meeting
to be held in the Thai resort island of Phuket on Thursday, apparently due to the
protracted standoff with the outside world over its missile and nuclear programs.
North Korea has notified the Thai government of its plan to send a vice foreign
minister-level ambassador, Pak Keun-gwang, on behalf of the foreign minister,
according to the North's embassy in Bangkok. South Korean officials said Bangkok
is still trying to persuade the North to send a higher-ranking official.
The U.S. said its delegation, led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, will
attend the ARF but has no plan for a bilateral meeting with North Korea, dashing
hopes of a breakthrough in the deadlocked six-way talks aimed at scrapping
Pyongyang's nuclear program. But diplomatic sources do not rule out the
possibility of unscheduled meetings in and out of the forum.
Kurt Campbell, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific
affairs, said his government will "interact" in Phuket with other members of the
six-way talks to discuss the next steps in denuclearizing the North, although a
proposed five-way meeting, which would exclude North Korea, is unlikely to be
held.
"I think the U.S. and South Korea have explored the option of a five-party
meeting at some point. Preparations need to be taken for such a meeting. I'm not
sure we'll be ready to do it in Phuket," he told reporters here over the weekend.
"But the U.S. and South Korea are busy coordinating our respective positions and
ensure that all the members have an opportunity to interact, if not in a
collective setting, then bilaterally in Thailand."
South Korea supports such a five-way gathering for discussions on how to bring
the North to the disarmament talks, but China is lukewarm, concerned that it
could further isolate North Korea and have a negative impact on the six-party
format.
Seoul, meanwhile, is mulling how to raise the issue of a South Korean worker
detained in North Korea at the ARF. The 44-year-old worker at the Kaesong
industrial park, located just north of the inter-Korean border, was taken into
custody by North Korean authorities in late March on charges of criticizing the
communist nation's political system and attempting to persuade a North Korean
woman to defect to the South. The North has held him incommunicado without giving
information to South Korean officials on his whereabouts.
Seoul's foreign minister said he will make reference to the human rights-related
issue at the ARF, but some asked for caution in raising inter-Korean agenda on
the global stage.
"Our position is that North Korea should free him immediately as it is a grave
issue to be handled as a matter of human rights. The government will make a
decision on how to raise the issue (at the ARF), depending on the situation
there," ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young said.
The South Korean minister plans to hold a series of bilateral meetings with his
counterparts from Indonesia, the U.S., China, Russia, Japan, and Australia on the
sidelines of the ARF.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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