RI regrets N. Korea's decision on NPT

RI regrets N. Korea's decision on NPT

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia regretted the heated situation in the Northeast Asian
region, following North Korea's decision to pull out of the
nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), with a call on the
country and its bickering partner the U.S. to end the standoff
amicably.

"We deeply regret Pyongyang's decision as it is unhelpful to
the situation in the Korean peninsula and, therefore, North Korea
should review the decision. Indonesia has encouraged that country
and the U.S. to enter discussions to end the standoff," spokesman
for the foreign ministry Marty Natalegawa said here on Tuesday.

In an earlier statement, Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda
expressed deep concern over the increasing number of countries
producing nuclear weapons in the Asian region.

"After China and India, our region does not need any more
countries producing nuclear weapons; that is why we have urged
interested countries to hold more effective dialog to settle the
nuclear issue in North Korea," he said.

Hassan also expressed Indonesia's readiness to play any role
in supporting peace efforts, as President Megawati Soekarnoputri
once played a "mailman" role to convey a peace message from Seoul
to Pyongyang.

Pyongyang made the decision after the U.S., which accused
North Korea of conducting nuclear experiments, stopped its food
and energy aid to that communist country. The U.S. stopped the
energy aid after Pyongyang asked UN weapons inspectors to leave
the country recently.

The U.S., with South Korea, Russia and Japan, was providing
energy aid to North Korea in compensation for the latter's
readiness not to produce nuclear weapons.

North Korea has argued that its decision was a reaction to
Washington's intention to come down as hard on Pyongyang as it
was on Iraq regarding the possession of weapon of mass
destruction by the countries.

To resolve the standoff, Washington assigned U.S. envoy to
Asia James Kelly to send messages around the region that the U.S.
was willing to engage in dialog with Pyongyang.

Kelly is slated to arrive in Jakarta on Friday, after visiting
Beijing, Seoul and Singapore on his mission to resolve the North
Korea issue.

Political analyst Dewi Fortuna Anwar said on Tuesday that the
government should lobby the opposing countries to hold dialogs as
the heated situation would certainly have a negative impact on
other countries' economies and political situations.

"The first country that will suffer from the tension is South
Korea, and the destabilization will definitely spread across the
region. It would ultimately hit Indonesia," she remarked.

South Korea is the second-largest oil importer from Indonesia
after Japan.

"Our government should be more active in campaigning to solve
the crisis in the peninsula," she said.