China has key to solve Korea row

The Beijing format for talks on the North Korean nuclear issue is the only way to a peaceful solution, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing (李肇星) said yesterday, hinting that a US offer of diplomatic relations might help.

In a rare and wide-ranging interview, Li stressed the importance of the UN as the only body able to deal with international issues and took a veiled dig at the US for ignoring UN processes.

The talks among China, the US and North Korea that began with a round of meetings in April in Beijing were the only way to resolve the North Korean issue, said Li who took up his post in March.

"The North Korean issue can only be resolved by peaceful means," Li said. "The Beijing talks are the only way."

No date has been set for another round of talks, with the US pressing North Korea to expand the meeting to include neighbors Japan and South Korea that lie within range of Pyongyang's huge missile arsenal.

Washington believes talks including China, South Korea and Japan would give them a stake in ensuring the North Koreans stick to any agreement.

Pyongyang rejects multilateral talks as a ploy to isolate it and repeated its demand for bilateral talks.

The war of words between the US and North Korea has sharpened since last year when US officials accused the North of developing nuclear weapons and President George W. Bush lumped it in an "axis of evil" along with Iran and pre-war Iraq.

China, which brokered the talks in April and is Pyongyang's nearest friend, was of the view that North Korea was diplomatically isolated, Li said on the sidelines of the annual security meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum in Phnom Penh.

"This must be resolved," he said, in an apparent hint to the United States that an offer of diplomatic relations could be a way to help break the deadlock.

"There cannot be nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula," Li said.

North Korea found its nuclear program topping the agenda of the forum yesterday when other nations in the 23-member grouping urged an end to the nuclear crisis.

Li has said he expects many difficulties ahead in the talks.

However, he appeared optimistic about the prospects for a visit to Beijing by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vaypayee starting on Sunday, saying he expected what will be the first trip by an Indian prime minister in a decade to cement "friendly ties" between the two neighbors.

Border and territorial disputes, which brought the two to war in the early 1960s, would not be a stumbling block, Li said, blaming the problem on the failure of colonial powers to resolve the issues before independence.

"These problems have a long history and we take a historical perspective," Li said, adding that he expected talks at some point in the future to lead to a peaceful resolution but saw no urgency.

The visit also offered the two developing world giants the chance to assert their independence from the US, analysts said.

Li took a dig at the US when asked about the importance of the UN in a post-Iraq war world.

"No other international body can replace the United Nations," Li said.

"But there are big powers that think they can just have their own way, big powers that find reasons to interfere in the internal affairs of others," Li said. "This is not reasonable."