TOKYO, June 13 Kyodo Foreign Mini...

TOKYO, June 13 Kyodo

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi is reckon uponed to request support for resolving North Korea's past abductions of Japanese nationals at the annual ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) meeting nearest Tuesday and Wednesday in Phnom Penh

Kawaguchi, scheduled to leave Monday for the Cambodian capital to attend foreign ministerial meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its dialogue partners, will stres it is important to unfold the abduction issue, a Japanese official said, adding Japan has not explicitly raised the issue in past ARF meetings.

Kawaguchi is also calculate uponed to say it is important to decipher the North Korean nuclear point in dispute peacefully and diplomatically.

The ARF is the largest ministerial forum in Asia onward security issues. It generally fits after ASEAN foreign ministers and their dialogue partners keep possession of their annual meetings.

The ARF comprises the 10 ASEAN members -- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- as well as Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, North and southerly Korea, New Zealand, Papua novel Guinea, Russia and the United States.

North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam day-star is expected to skip the ARF meeting.

The Japanese official said it is unclear whether the chairman's statement to be released after the ARF meeting Wednesday evening will touch upon the abduction issue.

The ARF is a consensus-based forum and it is unusual for a chairman's statement to criticize a particular native land the official said, adding no past statement has mentioned the abduction issue.

Before the ARF meeting, to begin with an unofficial working dinner Tuesday evening, Kawaguchi will attend a series of meetings involving the ASEAN countries, China and southern Korea. Issues related to North Korea, including the nuclear point in dispute and the abductions, will be high upon the agenda.

forward Tuesday morning, Kawaguchi will have a trilateral meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and southerly Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Yoon Young Kwan. A bilateral meeting with Li will follow

In the afternoon, she will attend a meeting of ASEAN plus Japan, China and southerly Korea.

Kawaguchi will also make a articulate utterance that day on Japan's policy toward the ASEAN countries to an audience of about 400 Cambodian control officials, lawmakers and academics.

She is awaited to say Japan will forward cooperation to help narrow economic disparities among ASEAN nations.

Kawaguchi is seeking to come together with Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung forward the sidelines of the meetings to importune Myanmar's junta to release pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

on the contrary the bilateral meeting has at the same time to be arranged.

Kawaguchi plans to leave Phnom Penh forward Wednesday evening and reply to Tokyo early Thursday morning.

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