Mongolia pledges to push North Korea back to talks

By Sam Kim
SEOUL, July 22 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's defense minister met with his Mongolian
counterpart on Wednesday and drew his pledge to press North Korea to stop raising
tension and return to talks, his office here said.

Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee is in Ulan Bator as part of a six-day tour that
took him to Moscow earlier this week. The trip came as tension persists in the
region after North Korea conducted its second nuclear test on May 25 and drew
sanctions from the United Nations.
In his meeting with Mongolian Defense Minister Luvsanvandan Bold, Lee called on
Ulan Bator to play "a constructive role" in persuading North Korea to return to
talks with South Korea, the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul said in a
statement.
Mongolia has over the years strengthened ties with North Korea, especially in
importing workers from the reclusive communist country to support its
understaffed economy.
"The two ministers agreed that unified international action is needed to achieve
nuclear dismantlement in North Korea," the ministry said. "Minister Bold said he
would make active efforts to resolve the North Korean problem."
On Wednesday, Lee met with Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and agreed
to push for five-way talks aimed at bringing North Korea back to international
aid-for-denuclearization talks.
North Korea recently declared the talks useless in protest of a U.N. statement
condemning the communist country for its April 5 rocket launch. The negotiations
involved the two Korea, Russia, China, the United States and Japan.
According to his ministry, Lee has been working to carve out a security channel
that links his country with Russia, Japan, China and the United States in dealing
with North Korea.
Lee and Serdyukov "agreed to make joint efforts to support the five-way dialogue
in order to bring North Korea back to the six-nation talks," the ministry said
in a separate release.
North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in October 2006.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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