APEC "Six-way talks on nuclear issue will continue"

Expressing its support on U.S. President George W. Bush’s remarks of “Safety security plan against North Korea within the framework of multi-nations,” the 11th round of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum yesterday commented, “We welcome the efforts to solve security concerns brought by North Korea.”

During the APEC summit held in Bangkok, Thailand, chairman of the forum and Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra reported the briefing and said, “We stand by the maintenance of peace and stability in Korean Peninsula as well as continuity on six-way talks, and we look forward to the complete and everlasting nuclear-free zone in Korean Peninsula through more specific and verifiable progress.”

As APEC selected a slogan of “Bangkok declaration for future partnership,” the summit ended up setting 25 clauses in three fields, such as complete and immediate dispersion of ultra-national terrorist groups, reinforcement of the band on spreading Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) system, and so forth.

The declaration contains the issue of: strengthened and efficient countermeasures for controlling exports of WMD, controls on manufacturing, transportation and mediation of portable MANPADS which is applicable to private plane terror, cooperative countermeasures against the terror threats using biological weapons, and other issues.

Meanwhile, during the participation in the APEC forum, President Roh Moo-Hyun and Russian President Vladimir Putin held the first summit at the Hotel Intercontinental in Bangkok and discussed pending issues such as the North Korean nuclear problems.

The two presidents agreed on the proposal of President Bush securing the North’s safety within the framework of five nations including South Korea, the United States, China, Japan, and Russia, and shared their opinions to work for this plan together. The two leaders also decided to closely cooperate to restart the second round of six-way talks in an early date.

In addition, the two nations vowed for a continuous “Constructive and mutual-relevant partnership” through the progress of Trans-Korean Railroad (TKR)∼Trans-Siberian Railroad (TSR) linking works and development of gas field in the eastern region of Russia. In the meeting, President Putin invited President Roh to Russia, and Roh replied that he will visit the nation next year.

President Roh will make a national visit to Singapore from October 22-24 and will return to Korea on October 24 in the afternoon.

Jeong-Hun Kim jnghn@donga.com