South Korea seeks talks with North

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – South Korea on Tuesday sought
talks with North Korea, which would be their highest-level
meeting since North Korean missile tests three weeks ago.

South Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said he wanted to meet
his North Korean counterpart, Paek Nam-sun, this week on the
sidelines of a Southeast Asian regional meeting in Malaysia.

“I have proposed to meet, but I have not received any firm
confirmation from the North Korean foreign minister,” Ban told
reporters on arrival at Kuala Lumpur airport.

North Korea angered its neighbors and the wider
international community on July 5 when it defied international
warnings and went ahead with a series of missile tests.

Ties between the two Koreas, which had been warming over
the past few years, turned chilly again after the tests. North
Korea walked out of a cabinet-level meeting in July and halted
a number of projects with the South.

North and South Korean foreign ministers have not met since
last year, when they also chose to meet on the sidelines of
talks hosted the Association of South East Asian Nations

(ASEAN).

South Korea also hopes that the North Korean foreign
minister will engage in wider six-party talks over its
nuclear-weapons activities at this week’s ASEAN meetings in
Malaysia.

“I urge him to return to six-party talks as soon as
possible,” Ban said.

The six-party talks — comprising the two Koreas, the
United States, China, Japan and Russia — have been stalled
since the last round in November, with North Korea objecting to
a U.S. crackdown on firms it suspects of aiding Pyongyang in
illicit activities such as counterfeiting and drug running.

But the prospects of renewed talks in Malaysia, where all
six parties will be taking part in an ASEAN-sponsored security
forum on Friday, appeared to have dimmed in the past two days.

North Korea’s state news agency called U.S. Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice a “political imbecile” and state-owned
Bank of China froze North Korea-related assets in its Macau
branch. An unconfirmed report says the bank’s move was in
response to North Korean counterfeiting of Chinese currency.

“We will try our best to have six-party, but in the event
the six-party is not going to be realized due to North Korean
non-participation, then we will discuss the matter with the
countries interested … on what to do,” Ban said.

He confirmed he would hold bilateral talks with his
Japanese counterpart, Taro Aso, this week. The two foreign
ministers held one of their infrequent meetings in May when
they held talks on the sidelines of a regional forum in Doha.

“There are a lot of issues between the two countries,” Ban
said. “We are going to discuss the missile tests, nuclear talks
and history disputes.”

(Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Seoul)