ASEAN meets in shadow of Korea tensions

A Myanmar citizen joins a protest calling for the release of detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi in Bangkok

Motorcyclists ride past the flags of countries participating in the Hanoi ASEAN summit

The sunken South Korean warship Cheonan is placed on a barge after being salvaged from the disputed Yellow Sea border

via Khmer NZ

By Ian Timberlake (AFP)

HANOI — Southeast Asian foreign ministers met in Vietnam on Tuesday for discussions dominated by concerns over the sinking of a South Korean warship and elections in military-ruled Myanmar.

Ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are meeting in Hanoi ahead of the region's main security forum Friday, which also gathers major powers including China, the United States and the European Union.

A draft statement prepared ahead of Tuesday's talks said the 10 ASEAN member states supported a nuclear-free Korean peninsula and urged a resumption of six-party disarmament talks "as soon as possible".

"We deplored the incident of the Cheonan ship sinking and the rising tension on the Korean peninsula," the draft statement said, referring to an explosion that ripped apart a South Korean warship in March, killing 46 sailors.

"We urge all parties concerned to exercise the utmost restraint, enhance confidence and trust, settle disputes by peaceful means through dialogue, and promote long-lasting peace and security in the region."

It said the six-party talks involving North and South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia were still the "main platform to achieve long-lasting peace and stability".

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-Chun will attend the 27-member ARF meeting alongside their counterparts from the six-party process.

It will be the first time the top diplomats from the disarmament dialogue will be in the same room since the Cheonan incident dramatically raised tensions on the Korean peninsula.

ASEAN chief Surin Pitsuwan said it was an opportunity to "engage in a discussion to see if the six-party talks can be given a new life".

Clinton will arrive in Vietnam after visits this week to Pakistan and South Korea, where she is due to attend a memorial for the dead sailors.

South Korea, the United States and other nations, citing the findings of a multinational investigation, accuse the North of firing a torpedo that sank the warship.

The North vehemently denies the allegations and has threatened a military response to any attempts to punish it.

But it has also said it is willing to return to the multilateral disarmament talks, which it abandoned last year, after the United Nations Security Council condemned the sinking but did not assign blame.

The US and South Korea have expressed skepticism about the North's sincerity and responded by announcing plans to hold war games this month, details of which will be announced Wednesday when Clinton visits Seoul alongside US Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

A US aircraft carrier, the 97,000-tonne USS George Washington, and three destroyers will visit South Korea this week ahead of the naval exercise.

A draft ARF chairman's statement suggests the ARF is likely to follow ASEAN's lead by expressing concern about the situation on the Korean peninsula without explicitly condemning North Korea for the Cheonan incident.

The draft ASEAN statement also calls for free and fair elections in military-ruled Myanmar and the involvement of "all parties" in the polls, which have been widely criticised as an attempt to cement the military's power.

Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party has opted to boycott the vote -- due some time this year -- because of rules laid down by the junta that would have forced it to expel its leader.

Surin said Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win "got an earful" from his Southeast Asian colleagues on the need for fair and credible elections.

Myanmar's top diplomat "listened very, very attentively" during the discussions late Monday, Surin added.

The bloc of almost 600 million people -- grouping Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- maintains a policy of non-interference in members' affairs.