Unofficial Ministerial Meeting in Singapore

According to senior government officials on Friday, foreign ministers from six-party talks member states including the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan, and Russia will reportedly have an unofficial meeting, on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum, on July 23 in Singapore.

A government source said, “Foreign ministers from the six nations will have an unofficial meeting in Singapore on July 23. The agenda has yet to be determined. However, they will discuss measures to disable North Korea’s nuclear facilities, deal with energy support for North Korea, and verify North Korea’s nuclear declaration.”

It is the first time for foreign ministers of the six nations to meet since the six-party talks framework was first launched in August 2003.

The ASEAN Regional Forum is the sole multilateral security cooperation body, which is participated by North Korea. Even though all the members of the six-party talks belong to the forum, no meeting of foreign ministers from the six states has ever been held.

At the meeting, foreign ministers will express their opinion on how to verify North Korea’s nuclear declaration, the pending issue of the talks. It remains to be seen how recently chilling bilateral relations between Korea and Japan, as a result of Japan’s provocative decision over the Dokdo islets in the East Sea, will affect the meeting.

The ministers will not announce an agreement at the unofficial meeting, which is expected to last around 90 minutes.

Certainly, the six nations agreed to hold a meeting of foreign ministers immediately after the closing of North Korea’s nuclear facilities when announcing their agreement on Feb. 13, 2007. However, an official meeting of foreign ministers has yet to be held. Some experts argue that the six states will hold a ministerial meeting on the sidelines of the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games.

jin0619@donga.com