China, N. Korea set to confront U.S. on defense

China, N. Korea set to confront U.S. on defense

HANOI (AFP): China and North Korea were expected to confront the United States over its planned missile defense system when officials meet here for an ASEAN Regional Forum this week, diplomats said on Monday.

"The issues cover a vast area and any country can raise any issue. I think China and North Korea will raise the missile defense and of course other countries will raise it too," one diplomatic source told AFP.

U.S. President George W. Bush has launched a coordinated offensive and dispatched several U.S. teams to capitals around the globe to drum up support for the National Missile Defense (NMD) program.

James Kelly, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, is leading a team touring Asia. His delegation is due to arrive here for the ASEAN meeting late Wednesday after leaving Beijing. The North Koreans were expected to arrive late Tuesday, a Vietnamese source said.

China is among the strongest opponents of NMD saying it violates the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty signed by the former Soviet Union and the U.S. in 1972, which forbids the development of missile defense systems.

Washington says NMD is aimed at protecting the U.S. and its allies from rogue states such as North Korea and Iraq.

"It won't surprise me. I'm expecting the Chinese and the North Koreans to raise the missile issue," another western diplomatic source said.

Sources also said there were no plans for a trilateral meeting between North Korea, the US and South Korea at the forum, although one diplomat added "a brief chat" was possible.

"As of now there are no plans for a meeting," the source told AFP. "It could be theoretically possible but there are no such plans."

Speculation had risen that the first talks between North Korea and the U.S. since the election of George W. Bush to the White House could take place on the sidelines of the gathering.

All three sides will be in Hanoi for the May 15-19 meeting and the diplomatic source confirmed Pyongyang will send a three- member delegation, headed by Ri Yong-ho from North Korea's foreign ministry.

"I think that (speculation of a trilateral meeting) is the product of an over-active imagination," the diplomatic source said.

Rapprochement talks between North and South Korea have stalled since the Bush administration took power and announced a review of its policy towards Pyongyang.

The previous administration of Bill Clinton had sought to back Seoul's efforts to prize Pyongyang out of its shell and achieve a reconciliation on the Korean peninsula.

But the U.S. policy review was seen as signaling a shift in stance towards the communist state, with the new administration making no secret of its distaste for the regime led by Kim Jong- Il.

However, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said last week the review was nearly complete, sparking some hope of rejuvenating South Korea's "Sunshine Policy".

"I suspect that we will (be talking with the North) in the near future," Armitage said.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The ASEAN Regional Forum encompasses 23 ASEAN and outside countries.