Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) on Saturday reiterated their \u201cgrave concern\u201d over North Korea\u2019s continued nuclear missiles tests.<\/b>
\nForeign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) on Saturday reiterated their \u201cgrave concern\u201d over North Korea\u2019s continued nuclear missiles tests.
At the start of its annual meeting hosted this year by Manila, the 10-nation regional bloc used stronger language to urge North Korea to \u201cimmediately comply\u201d with UN Security Council resolutions on its nuclear tests and program.
But it fell short of the wish of the United States that members of the bloc downgrade its relations with the already isolated nation.
The United States also pushed in the UN Security Council a resolution that would slash by a third North Korea\u2019s $3 billion annual export revenues.
The council was to vote on the measure on Saturday.
Stronger language
In its joint statement, the Asean ministers said developments in the Korean peninsula \u201cseriously threaten peace, security and stability in the region and the world.\u201d
The statement was also issued separately, rather than included in the Asean\u2019s customary communique at the end of the top-level meeting.
But Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, who chaired the top-level meeting, said ministers were divided over a US proposal to suspend North Korea from the Asean Regional Forum (ARF) , which would convene on Monday.
\u201cThere were views that, \u2018How can we hear them out or confront them if they\u2019 re not there?\u2019 But there\u2019s also a view that we should give them an ultimatum, \u201d Cayetano said.
Instead, the ministers \u201cstrongly [called] upon\u201d North Korea as a member of the ARF to help \u201cmaintain the Asia Pacific as a region of lasting peace, stability, friendship and prosperity.\u201d
As the world\u2019s largest security gathering, the ARF gathers each year foreign ministers from the 10 ASEAN nations, plus 17 other countries, including the United States, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea and North Korea.
Also on Saturday, South Korea Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said she was open to rare discussions with her North Korean counterpart on the sidelines of the ARF.
\u201cIf there is an opportunity, we should talk, \u201d Kang told reporters as she landed in Manila on Saturday, according to South Korea\u2019s Yonhap news agency.
Kang, South Korea\u2019s first female foreign minister, said any meeting with North Korea\u2019s top diplomat, Ri Hong-yo, would be an opportunity \u201cto deliver our desire for the North to stop its provocations and positively respond to our recent special offers [for talks] aimed at establishing a peace regime.\u201d
New UN sanctions
In July, Seoul proposed military talks with Pyongyang, but the North refused to respond. Had they gone ahead, they would have been the first official inter-Korean talks since 2015.
The newly elected South Korean government of President Moon Jae-in is more open to negotiations than the previous administration run by Park Geun-hye.
The ARF will convene after the UN Security Council votes on the US-drafted resolution that aims to slash by a third North Korea\u2019s $3 billion annual export revenue.
A council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was \u201chigh confidence\u201d that North Korea allies China and Russia would support the draft resolution, which was circulated to the 15 Security Council members on Friday.
The draft resolution would ban North Korea\u2019s exports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood.
It would also prohibit countries from increasing the current numbers of North Korean laborers working abroad, ban new joint ventures with North Korea and any new investment in current joint ventures.<\/p>\n

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