RI, Australia urge dialog to end N. Korea crisis
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia and Australia have mounted pressure on North Korea to engage in a multilateral dialog involving not only the United States, but also countries in the region, to end the nuclear standoff on the peninsula.
Visiting Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer said on Tuesday that the stability of many countries in the region would be at stake if the standoff worsened.
"We find that it is important that they (Pyongyang) talk, not just with the Americans, but with countries in the region that have substantial stakes in the stability in the region," he said.
Speaking to journalists after holding talks with his Indonesian counterpart Hassan Wirayuda, Downer underlined that Pyongyang should express its intention to settle the issue through dialog.
"In the end, we would like to feel that North Korea would be prepared, instead of threatening their neighbors, to come to talks that include regional countries," Downer said.
Both foreign ministers also agreed that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum (ARF) should play a part in solving the crisis peacefully.
Downer said that as a member of ARF, Australia would like to see the forum find concrete measures and put an end to the standoff.
ARF is a joint security forum between ASEAN members plus North Korea, Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, South Korea, Papua New Guinea, Russia and the United States.
Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Marty Natalegawa concurred with Downer, saying that Jakarta shared the view that ARF should take a leading role in solving the crisis.
"During the meeting, minister Hassan agreed that there is an urgent need for ARF to explore possible measures in ending the crisis, as the disputing parties are all members of the forum," Marty told The Jakarta Post.
Downer said that Indonesia, in the coming ASEAN informal retreat on Sunday, would bring up the idea of ARF playing a role and discuss the possibilities.
Hassan will attend the retreat in Sabah, Malaysia. The meeting is aimed at preparing various issues to be discussed during the ASEAN summit in Bali in October.
Marty said that in the next meeting Indonesia would propose the idea to the ARF chairman, Cambodia, as most of the ASEAN countries were directly affected by the standoff.
The North Korea nuclear standoff with the U.S. has worsened by the day, with Pyongyang launching a second missile test in the Sea of Japan on Monday.
The worsening situation on the peninsula is gaining less attention than the Iraq crisis, which has come under immense pressure from Washington to disarm or risk the possibility of attack by the U.S. and its allies.
Indonesia, which has good relations with both Washington and Pyongyang, has offered to facilitate dialog between the two.
During a meeting with President Megawati Soekarnoputri last month on the sidelines of Non-Aligned Movement summit, Pyongyang's number two Kim Yong-nam demanded a bilateral dialog with Washington.
"I think as two countries (Indonesia and Australia) that share the same view, we could carry some influence to encourage the process of dialog," Downer said.
The minister is in town leading a large delegation to participate in the Australian-Indonesian Ministerial Forum (AIMF), which is aimed at strengthening bilateral ties between the two neighbors.