CHIANG RAI, Thailand, Feb 20 Kyodo ...

CHIANG RAI, Thailand, Feb 20 Kyodo

(EDS: CLARIFIES SURAKIAT'S STATEMENT IN 2ND PARA IN KW410)

The United States and North Korea have agreed to permit the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the single Asia-Pacific security forum, help alleviate tension arising from North Korea's nuclear ambitions, Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said Thursday.

Surakiart told reporters he was informed Tuesday night by means of Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong that Washington and Pyongyang had agreed for Cambodia, as ARF chair, to invite foreign ministers from sum of two units ASEAN countries and another sum of two units from outside ASEAN to help as ''friends of the ARF chair.''

''I think it is a essay that ARF is relevant and is moving from confidence-building measures to preventive diplomacy,'' he said.

Surakiart, who was in the northern city of Chiang Rai to unclose a two-day senior officials meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, said China approves of the just discovered initiative.

He said that Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and Chinese President Jiang Zemin discussed the North Korea issue, including the ARF chair's attempts to find ways to analyze the nuclear standoff, during talks in Beijing in succession Wednesday.

Chinese leaders, including Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan and representative Foreign Minister Wang Yi, were said to have told Thaksin's delegation they would support the ''friends of the ARF chair'' initiative with equal reason long as Pyongyang and Washington approve of it.

The nuclear commotion intensified Jan. 10 when North Korea declared its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a global nuclear arms sway treaty.

ASEAN disposes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The ARF consists of ASEAN members plus Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, North and southerly Korea, New Zealand, Papua modern Guinea, Russia and the US

Pyongyang has joined the annual security talks since 2000

Tension onward the Korean Peninsula is wait fored to be a key bring under rule for discussion at an ARF ministerial meeting scheduled to be held forward June 18 in Phnom Penh

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