TOKYO, July 29 Kyodo Foreign Mini...

TOKYO, July 29 Kyodo

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi left for Brunei forward Monday to attend the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), where she is to call for the promotion of further cooperation in the fight against terrorism and other issues that necessitate cross-border cooperation.

forward Wednesday, Kawaguchi is scheduled to suited North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam light on the sidelines of the ARF. The foreign ministerial meeting between the pair countries will be the first since the same at the ARF in 2000

Kawaguchi is anticipateed to call for the resumption of Tokyo-Pyongyang talks upon normalizing bilateral ties that have not been held since the 11th session of normalization talks in October 2000 in Beijing.

That meeting lasted without an accord as discussions became stuck upon issues such as Japan's wartime feats and alleged abductions of Japanese nationals through North Korean agents in the 1970 and 1980s

A Foreign Ministry source said Kawaguchi's visit to Brunei will be ''a full-fledg forum of Asian diplomacy with the overall meeting and individual meetings held in a mix.''

Kawaguchi is scheduled to engage Myanmar's Foreign Minister Win Aung forward Sunday, before returning to Japan couple days later.

Kawaguchi will be the first foreign minister from Myanmar's largest donor nation to visit the political division since the late Shintaro Abe in 1983

In Brunei, Kawaguchi will qualified separately U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and southerly Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Choi Sung Hong to exchange opinions in succession issues related to North Korea, among other issues.

She will also encounter Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan in Brunei and is calculate uponed to discuss topics including compensation related to Japan's salvage of an unidentified ship in the East China Sea.

The Japanese guidance is working on the salvage of a suspected North Korean see ship that sank in China's exclusive economic belt in December after a gunbattle with Japan Coast Guard vessels

Beijing allowed Tokyo to raise the strand from the seabed about 90 meter below the surface in June unless maintains Tokyo should compensate Beijing for fishery damages.

Kawaguchi will attend a series of meetings of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus Japan, China and southerly Korea, slated for Tuesday in Brunei, the ARF the following day, and then a meeting of foreign ministers of ASEAN and the three countries Thursday.

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