Tensions over North Korea are expected to overshadow Asia’s largest security forum this week in Vietnam — four months after 46 South Korean sailors were killed in the sinking of a warship that was blamed on Pyongyang.
The reclusive North, which has denied attacking the 1,200-tonne Cheonan, is expected to send its top diplomat to the annual security meeting organized by the ASEAN.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her South Korean counterpart will also attend, marking the first time the three have met since the deadly sinking.
Foreign ministers from the 10-member countries started arriving in the tightly guarded Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, on Monday, a day before the official opening ceremony, to hold talks on how to improve the enforcement of a treaty banning nuclear weapons from the region. The Korean ship incident was also discussed.
“They certainly expressed their concerns about whether such an issue will lead to further instability and insecurity and potential flare-ups, which will not be good for the region,” ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said on the sidelines after the talks.
The foreign ministers will be joined later in the week by officials from the Asia-Pacific, Europe and the US for the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).
The ministers’ agenda is heavy with issues surrounding the bloc’s goal of establishing a European-style economic community by 2015, and the lingering hardship created by the global financial crisis.
But North Korea and military-ruled Myanmar are expected to dominate discussions.
An international team of investigators concluded in May that a North Korean submarine fired a torpedo that sank the Cheonan on March 26.
Pyongyang has denied responsibility and warned any punishment would trigger war.
ASEAN and ARF ministers strongly condemned the sinking, but avoided laying blame.
“We expressed deep concern over the sinking of the ship Cheonan and the rising tension on the Korean peninsula,” separate draft statements obtained by The Associated Press said. “We urge all parties concerned to exercise utmost restraint, enhance confidence and trust, settle disputes by peaceful means.”
Participants also will seek the resumption of stalled six-way talks aimed at ending the North’s nuclear weapons program. The last nuclear disarmament talks involving the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the US were held in Beijing in December 2008.
Pitsuwan said ASEAN member states are encouraging formal or informal meetings among the parties to take place this week.
The ASEAN ministers will also press Myanmar, which plans to call general elections this year, to hold its polls in a “free, fair and inclusive manner with the participation of all political parties,” according to the draft statement.
The reclusive junta has yet to set a date for the elections, Myanmar’s first in two decades. Critics have dismissed the election as a sham designed to cement nearly 50 years of military rule in Myanmar.
Detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party will boycott the vote, citing unfair elections laws. Her party has since been disbanded.
Additionally, Myanmar has been suspected of embarking on a nuclear program with the aim of developing a bomb — with backing from North Korea. Myanmar denied those allegations when the issue was raised at Monday’s nuclear meeting, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said.
“We welcome the Myanmar government’s pronouncement that their nuclear research has nothing to do with military activities,” he said on the meeting’s sidelines.
He added that some ministers expressed a desire to build nuclear power plants, but that there was agreement that the process should be transparent because any accident could affect neighboring countries.
The ASEAN ministers will also work on the agenda of a summit in October between their heads of state and US President Barack Obama.
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