'Korean crisis resolution still remote'
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Kuala Lumpur
No major steps have been taken to ease tension in the Korean Peninsula, mainly due to unbridgeable difference of opinion between the United States and North Korea, Indonesian special envoy to Pyongyang Nana Sutresna admitted on Saturday.
Nana, fresh from his recent visit to Pyongyang to deliver President Megawati Soekarnoputri's offer to broker peace in the peninsula, said the efforts to bring the conflicting parties to the negotiating table had been hampered by Washington's demand for the precondition that Pyongyang follow the disarmament program, while North Korea asked for a non-conditional dialog.
He said Indonesia was trying to accommodate the warring parties and to find appropriate measures to settle the dispute. He did not elaborate, however.
Indonesia has been seen as the middleman to end the Korean crisis, as Jakarta has an excellent relationship with all of the warring parties.
The role was assumed when Megawati conveyed peace messages from Seoul to Pyongyang in March last year and offered to facilitate dialog to end the Korean crisis, that has escalated in the past few months after North Korea pulled out of the Non- Proliferation Treaty.
Nana also said the U.S. misperception of North Korea's ability to develop nuclear weapons had posed a hurdle to a peaceful settlement.
"The problem is a misperception on the part of the United States. I doubt that North Korea has the capability to produce nuclear weapons," Nana told The Jakarta Post on Saturday on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement meeting.
Nana further underlined that Pyongyang's call for help to Indonesia could be seen as a signal that the communist state was worried about the developing situation in the Peninsula.
The Korean crisis is one of the main topics of discussion in the NAM meeting here. Indonesian foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda said a paragraph on North Korea was still being discussed as some countries had different opinions on how to address the issue.
Separately, Hassan said Jakarta would offer Pyongyang the chance to bring the Korean issue to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum.
"We may offer them the opportunity to settle the issue through the ASEAN Regional Forum. But the forum is still trying to figure out the appropriate mechanism through which the offer can be realized," Hassan said after a meeting with his North Korean counterpart Paek Nam-sun on Saturday.
The U.S., North Korea and South Korea are among ASEAN's partners which have always been invited to the forum.
Hassan said during his meeting with Paek, North Korea insisted on bilateral talks with the U.S. Washington has maintained that the issue must be settled through the United Nations Security Council.
"North Korea refuses to internationalize the issue," Hassan remarked.
The Indonesian government will reassert its intention to play a mediatory role when President Megawati and North Korea Parliamentary Chief Kim Yong-nam meet here on Sunday.
In the meeting, Megawati expects to hear a direct response from the number two strong man in Pyongyang.
Megawati is slated to arrive here on Sunday. During her Malaysian trip, the Indonesian president will also hold bilateral talks with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Bangladesh Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, South African President Thabo Mbeki, Srilanka President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kamaratunga and Vietnam President Tran Duc Luong.
Megawati will extend her stay in Kuala Lumpur to attend the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) informal meeting on Wednesday before flying back to Jakarta later in the day.