Anti-nuke vows
Asian diplomats press Pyongyang to make denuclearisation a reality
Asia’s top diplomats press North Korea to turn a pledge to completely dismantle its nuclear arsenal into reality amid concerns that the North is proceeding with its programmes.
SINGAPORE: Asia’s top diplomats pressed North Korea to turn a pledge to completely dismantle its nuclear arsenal into reality amid concerns that it’s proceeding with its programmes.
North Korea’s foreign minister, Ri Yong-ho, however, hit the United States in an Asian security forum in Singapore for certain “alarming” moves, including “raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against” the North.
Those moves, Ri told fellow ministers, could make an agreement with the Trump administration, including the North’s commitment to work toward complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, “face difficulties”.
China and South-East Asian nations also faced calls in the Singapore meetings to rapidly conclude an effective non-aggression pact that can help fend off possible clashes in the disputed South China Sea.
Both sides have announced an agreement on an initial draft of a regional “code of conduct” that they regarded as a milestone after 16 years of sporadic talks.
Alarm over rising trade protectionism, which Asian governments warn could stymie economic growth, dominated the meetings too, with Japan calling for the swift conclusion of a 16-nation Asian free trade agreement that does not include the United States.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano yesterday said the rapprochement between North Korea and the United States, along with completion of a negotiating draft of the code of conduct for the South China Sea, are breakthroughs.
But he added that “like any other breakthrough in diplomatic negotiations, they may lead to something great, they may lead to nothing”.
“Now the hard work is really on the details,” Cayetano told reporters before walking into day-long meetings between Asean and their partners the United States, China, Japan and South Korea.
Asean foreign ministers, along with counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea, urged the US and North Korea “as well as concerned parties to continue working towards the realisation of lasting peace and stability on a denuclearised Korean Peninsula”, according to a draft communique they were to issue after their meetings yesterday.
In the communique, they would “note” – often a diplomatic subtlety for a reminder – the “stated com- mitment” of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s formal name, “to complete denuclearisation and its pledge to refrain from further nuclear and missile tests during this period”.
A summary of a new report by experts monitoring UN sanctions against North Korea, which was sent to the Security Council on Friday night, said North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missiles programmes and continues to defy the sanctions resolutions.
The North was also violating sanctions by transferring coal at sea and flouting an arms embargo and financial sanctions, the report said.
Ri said that while North Korea has “initiated goodwill measures” including a “moratorium on the nuclear test and rocket launch test and dismantling of nuclear test ground”, the US has gone “back to the old, far from its leader’s intention”.
Ri made the remarks in a speech that came after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was at the same Asean conference, warned Russia, China and others against any violation of international sanctions that North Korea continues to face.
After agreeing on the text of the code of conduct in the disputed waters, senior Chinese and Asean diplomats will meet in Cambodia this month or in September, to be followed by another meeting in the Philippines, to start actual negotiations, a senior South-East Asian diplomat said on condition of anonymity because of a lack of authority to discuss the issue publicly.
Western officials called for an early conclusion of such a pact, which they said should be legally binding and could effectively check aggressive behaviour in the disputed region.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that “without disturbances from the outside” the negotiations on the code would shift to a “fast track”.