• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

North, South Korean Foreign Ministers Expected to Meet in Laos

Posted on: Wednesday, 20 July 2005, 09:00 CDT

Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap

Seoul, 20 July: South Korea's Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon will visit Laos next week for an annual regional security forum that will also include his counterpart from North Korea. Ban's trip, set to begin on Tuesday [26 July], coincides with a new round of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programme that will also open on Tuesday in Beijing after a 13-month hiatus.

Ban and North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun are expected to meet on the sidelines of the ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] Regional Forum, or ARF, scheduled for 29 July. The ARF is an annual meeting by the foreign ministers from the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and 14 other Asia-Pacific countries, including all six participants in the nuclear talks - the two Koreas, the US, China, Japan and Russia. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to miss this year's session, officials said.

On Wednesday, Ban will attend an "ASEAN plus three" forum that brings together the foreign ministers from the 10 ASEAN countries plus South Korea, China and Japan. After the ARF meeting, Ban will stay in Laos for an official visit to the country, which includes talks with his counterpart Somsavat Lengsavat and a meeting with Prime Minister Boungnang Volachit. His nine-day overseas trip also includes a visit to India, where Ban is to meet his counterpart, Natwar Singh, President Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

More News in this Category