ASEAN disappointed over failure of North Korean nuclear talks

Asia
ASEAN disappointed over failure of North Korean nuclear talks
By DPA, Jan 11, 2007 - 1:17:02 PM

Cebu -, Jan 11 - The Association of South-East Asian Nations - has expressed its disappointment with the failure of last month's six-nation talks aimed at persuading North Korea to drop its nuclear weapons programme, an official said Thursday.

ASEAN foreign ministers are meeting in Cebu province, 585 km south of Manila, ahead of an annual leaders summit and a broader East Asian summit in the weekend that would bring together presidents or prime ministers from 16 countries.

ASEAN consists of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.

The ministers of these countries will be later joined by their counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea - part of the six-nation North Korean negotiations - as well as India, New Zealand and Australia.

'We are disappointed at what happened in the recent six-party talks,' Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said.

'While encouraging every diplomatic option remains a very high priority, I believe we should also be consistent in conveying to the North Koreans the expectations of the international community with respect to denuclearisation,' he added.

The six-party talks involving the two Koreas, the US, China, Japan and Russia took a recess last month in Beijing after failing to see progress and with Pyongyang vowing to continue with its nuclear weapons development.

Romulo said ASEAN would bring up the North Korean issue, particularly the 'humanitarian angle of the North Korean people who are suffering', in its meetings with Japan, South Korea and China and at the East Asian Summit.

He also repeated the Philippines' offer to host the negotiations.

ASEAN, fearing that North Korea's nuclear weapons programme could spark a dangerous nuclear arms race in East Asia, has been seeking to play an active role in ending Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

The foreign ministers also rebuked Myanmar for the slow pace of democratic reforms.

'We expressed concern on the pace of the national reconciliation process, and we told Myanmar that we hope to see tangible progress that would lead to peaceful transition to democracy in the near future,' Romulo said.

'We hope that Myanmar's efforts to deal with those challenges will progress so that Myanmar can effectively engage in the international community and in this regard, ASEAN would remain constructively engaged,' he added.

Myanmar's failure to implement genuine democratic reforms and to fix its abysmal human rights records has been a cause of friction between ASEAN and key partners, such as the US and the EU.

Due to continuing criticisms over its failure to implement democratic reforms, Myanmar was forced to give up its turn to chair the ASEAN last year, prompting the Philippines to take up the rotating post.

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