N. Korea to attend ARF meeting: RI

N. Korea to attend ARF meeting: RI Agencies, Seoul

North Korea will send its foreign minister to a regional forum in July, where concern over the communist state's nuclear weapons development will be a key topic, Indonesia's foreign minister said on Tuesday.

"Following my talks in Pyongyang, I can say with confidence there are reasons to be optimistic Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun will be attending ... the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF)," Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said during a joint press conference with his South Korean counterpart Ban Ki-moon.

He flew to Seoul on Tuesday for talks with Ban.

Hassan said he expects Paek to make a separate visit to Indonesia on bilateral issues on the sidelines of the regional forum.

Hassan, who arrived here following his May 1-4 visit to North Korea, briefed Ban on his Pyongyang trip, officials said.

In Pyongyang, Hassan met Paek and Kim Yong Nam, head of the North Korean Parliament's Presidium, who serves as ceremonial head of state.

Indonesia, world's largest populous Muslim nation, and communist North Korea enjoy close relations.

Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri met North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in March 2002, rekindling a family friendship dating back 30 years. Indonesia's first president, Sukarno, Megawati's late father, established diplomatic relations with Kim's late father, Kim Il-sung, in the 1950s.

Hassan's visit came as Pyongyang agreed last week to join a working-group meeting in Beijing on May 12 aimed at setting up a fresh round of six-nation negotiations on its nuclear weapons drive.

"In my capacity as chairman of the ARF, I would like to see peaceful resolutions to the issue through negotiations and dialog in the region," Hassan said.

Indonesia is scheduled to host the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum -- which consists of the 10- member ASEAN and 13 other Asia-Pacific countries, including the United States, China and Russia -- in Jakarta from June 29-July 2.

Paek's attendance indicates the isolated country's willingness to engage the outside world, and raises the prospects for rare bilateral meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and South Korean Foreign Minister Ban.

North Korea sent its foreign minister to the 2002 meeting but an ambassador-at-large to last year's forum, held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Hassan's Pyongyang visit came amid a stalemate over the North's nuclear weapons program.

The United States, the two Koreas, Japan, China and Russia are working to call a third round of six-nation talks before July to ease tensions over the North's nuclear crisis.