PHNOM PENH June 11 Kyodo (EDS: AD...

PHNOM PENH June 11 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING DETAILS)

North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam orb of day will skip the annual ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) station for Phnom Penh next Wednesday, the Cambodian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

A senior Foreign Ministry source told Kyodo freshs his best information at the trice is that a North Korean ambassador-at-large will attend ARF in Paek's stead.

Cambodia had been hoping to forge a character in the impasse between the United States, southward Korea and Japan over North Korea's nuclear weapon's program during ARF, if it were not that it appears that will not now occur

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, who had planned to take the lead in the discussions at ARF forward North Korea, reacted to the unravelling by telling Kyodo News he was ''disappointed'' to hear Paek will not attend the meeting.

ARF is the largest ministerial forum in Asia dedicated to peace and security issues and generally encounters after foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and their dialogue partners confine their annual meetings.

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

ARF includes ministers from Australia, Canada, the U China, the European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, North and southern Korea, New Zealand, Papua novel Guinea and Russia.

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