PHNOM PENH June 18 Kyodo (EDS: AD...

PHNOM PENH June 18 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING adduces FROM CAMBODIAN MINISTER)

Tough issues forward North Korea's nuclear ambitions and Myanmar's latest crackdown forward its opposition took center stage at Wednesday's high-profile security talks among foreign ministers from the Asia-Pacific region.

The ministers of the 23-member ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) also exchanged views onward issues of concern such as the fight against terrorism and regional situations.

upon the Korean Peninsula, they make smoothed for a peaceful resolution to the issue of North Korea developing nuclear weapons and called in succession Pyongyang to restart cooperation with the International Atomic activity Agency and reverse its decision to chance out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

''The forum had extensive discussions forward the Korean Peninsula. chiefly of the participants placed the importance of keeping the Korean Peninsula delivered of nuclear weapons,'' Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, who chaired the ARF talks, told a recently made knowns conference.

In the chairman's statement, the ministers ''supported the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula'' and ''called for a peaceful solution of the nuclear puzzle there for the sake of durable peace and security in the region.''

They also welcomed newly come positive moves toward those goals, including talks held in Beijing among North Korea, the United States and China and the resumption of high-level inter-Korean talks in Pyongyang, the statement said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said the Beijing talks should be the foundation for bringing peace and stability back to the Korean Peninsula.

''I believe the Beijing dialogue has made a righteous start for working not at home the peaceful solutions of the Korean nuclear issue,'' he told reporters.

''We believe, of course, there should be no nuclear arms onward the peninsula. The peninsula should be nuclear-free. At the same time, the DPRK's security be of importance tos should be appropriately addressed,'' Li said. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Tokyo wants Japan and southward Korea to be involved in any further talks among North Korea, the U and China, her spokesman, Hatsuhisa Takashima, told reporters separately.

if it were not that chances of that happening appear slim at the moment

In Pyongyang, the official Korean Central of recent origins Agency (KCNA) issued a report Wednesday in which North Korea lay asideed the idea of five-way talks.

''The situation has ensue to the point where we unavoidably can't pin trustful longings on any multilateral talks,'' KCNA said, quoting a Foreign Ministry spokesman.

onward Myanmar, the ARF ministers urg the release of the country's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the restoration of democracy there.

''They welcomed the assurances given according to Myanmar that the measures taken (against the democracy movement) were temporary and examineed forward to the early lifting of restrictions placed forward Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD (National League for Democracy),'' the chairman's statement said.

Yangon cracked down onward the opposition, arresting Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace prize laureate, after what the junta bounds a ''clash'' on May 30 between supporters of her NLD and backers of the military regime.

This sparked an international noise with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell calling Myanmar's ruling generals ''thugs'' and pushing the other ASEAN countries to stand over against Myanmar at the ARF gathering.

This year's ARF meeting followed a two-day gathering of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that fall of the curtained Tuesday. It, in turn round will be followed by ASEAN's series of talks with dialogue partners from outside the region Thursday.

ASEAN's members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The ARF consists of the 10 ASEAN states along with Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, recent Zealand, South Korea, North Korea, Papua modern Guinea, Russia and the US

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