Asian talks focus on regional security

Asian talks focus on regional security

BANGKOK (Reuters): Southeast and north Asia took a step towards forming what could be a powerful regional bloc as the presence of North Korea at landmark talks put the spotlight firmly on security.

North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun joined his counterparts from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Japan, China and South Korea for the first time in a series of meetings on wide-ranging cooperation.

Paek was mobbed by reporters as he met Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan and seemed overwhelmed by the rowdy reception.

"You'd better get used to this," said Surin, as a huge crowd of photographers, cameramen and reporters pressed in around them.

"The fact that he has agreed to join us is a big step forward for security and diplomacy in the region," Surin told reporters.

"Not only the Asia-Pacific region but the whole of the world will benefit" from the end of North Korea's isolation, he said.

The two men were meeting on the sidelines of the first formal gathering of foreign ministers from the group, known as ASEAN+3.

The region has been inching towards a trading bloc in recent years and has agreed a string of financial initiatives to bolster its currencies and reduce tariff barriers.

Hit by recession in 1997 after the devaluation of the Thai baht sparked a regionwide currency meltdown, finance ministers have already signed a pact to pool foreign reserves in the event of speculative attack on foreign exchange markets.

ASEAN -- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- is also in the process of creating a free-trade zone that they hope will also be extended eventually to north Asia.

Focus

But Wednesday's meeting added a political dimension and North Korea's attendance has put the focus firmly on security. North Korea has emerged from five decades of isolation over the last year and saw a historic summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and South Korean leader Kim Dae-jung in June.

And the Bangkok talks mark the first time the North Korean foreign minister will meet his counterparts from South Korea, Japan and the United States.

Cash-strapped Pyongyang is embarking on a diplomatic offensive to improve ties with its neighbors and try to rescue its economy, ruined by neglect and central planning.

But Seoul, Tokyo and Washington want Pyongyang to abandon a missile program that has caused jitters in Asia. North Korea told Russian President Vladimir Putin last week it would scrap its missile program in exchange for help in exploring space.

The United States is deciding whether to proceed with a multi- billion dollar National Missile Defense system to ward off attacks by small states not party to international treaties, such as North Korea. China and Russia have attacked the U.S. plan.

Beijing, which argues North Korea's diplomatic opening has made the anti-missile umbrella unnecessary, has said it would press its opposition to the U.S. scheme at two days of ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) talks due to begin on Wednesday evening.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the U.S. proposed missile defense scheme "isn't an offense system and it simply reflects the concern about the development of ballistic capability in certain countries -- and not China and not Russia".

Also at the ARF, a consultative grouping of 37 Asian and other nations, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is expected to hold an unprecedented meeting with the North Korean foreign minister.

Downer told reporters the whole of Asia also needed dialog with North Korea.

"It gives the ASEAN Regional Forum a good deal more credibility to have a country in it which is part of the Asia- Pacific region but which frankly has been a concern to the security structure of the Asia-Pacific region," he said.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff said he hoped the ARF would develop "from a confidence building exercise into preventive diplomacy and ultimately conflict resolution".

"After 50 years of isolation, the time has come for a process of engagement with North Korea," he said.