RI, Australia urge dialog to end N. Korea crisis

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.