Japan, U.S., S. Korea trade barbs with N. Korea on sinking ship

HANOI, July 23 Kyodo -
Japan, South Korea, the United States and many other members of a
ministerial-level regional security forum on Friday condemned the deadly
sinking of a South Korean warship in March, a source of rising tension in and
around the Korean Peninsula.
A majority of members of the 27-member ASEAN Regional Forum expressed ''deep
concern'' over the sinking of the Cheonan in the Yellow Sea, which they blamed
on North Korea by citing a report by a group of international investigators,
delegates said.
''The sinking of the Cheonan is unforgivable,'' Japanese Foreign Minister
Katsuya Okada told reporters after the meeting. ''North Korea's act in this
incident poses threat against peace and stability'' in the region.
''North Korea should take seriously a U.N. Security Council presidential
statement (issued after the incident) and try to address the international
community's concerns,'' Okada said, referring to the July 9 statement that
''condemns the attack that led to the sinking'' without directly blaming
Pyongyang.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said North Korea must reverse a
''campaign of provocative, dangerous behavior'' and commit itself to an
irreversible denuclearization if it wants to improve relations with neighboring
countries and the United States.
Clinton encouraged her ARF partners to ''implement fully and transparently''
Resolution 1874, which the Security Council adopted in June 2009 to apply fresh
sanctions to Pyongyang following its second nuclear test in May that year.
Okada said Japan supports U.S.-South Korea drills beginning Sunday in the Sea
of Japan, which apparently aim to check Pyongyang against any future
provocations, and Washington's additional sanctions on Pyongyang in response to
the Cheonan case.
Rapping the planned U.S.-South Korea drills and Seoul's demand for apology over
the Cheonan incident, North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun said, ''The
situation seems like coming to the brink of war,'' according to a diplomatic
source.
Pak repeated denial over Pyongyang's involvement in the sinking and demanded
that Seoul ''apologize and acknowledge the truth'' behind the March 26 incident
that left 46 South Korean sailors dead, according to the source.
While condemning the planned drills, Ri Tong Il, a spokesman for North Korea's
delegation to the ARF, warned, ''There will be a physical response against the
threat imposed by the United States militarily,'' without elaborating.
China, a traditional ally of North Korea, told the meeting that it was time to
''turn the page'' from the Cheonan case because the region should move on to
tackle other issues including denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,
according to another diplomatic source.
Many of the ARF members, except South Korea, said they support an early
resumption of the stalled six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programs,
the source said.
''Nobody here is your enemies. We would like you to engage with us as well as
at the ARF,'' Clinton was quoted as telling the North at the meeting. ''We just
want you to return to the six-party talks and implement the denuclearization
program.''
South Korea, Japan and the United States were believed to have called for a
strong ARF chairman's statement to be issued after the meeting, similar in tone
with the Security Council presidential statement.
Vietnamese officials said the statement may not be released Friday due to
conflicting views among North Korea, South Korea and a majority of the ARF
members over North Korean issues.
Seoul and Tokyo apparently showed a cautious stance toward the North's offer to
return to the six-way talks, a move that Seoul sees as a ploy by Pyongyang to
divert international attention from the Cheonan incident.
''This is a serious situation. The six-party talks will not resume as if
nothing has happened,'' Okada told reporters Thursday, citing the loss of 46
lives.
Ri requested the lifting of U.N. sanctions so that North Korea can take part in
the six-party process on an ''equal footing'' with other members.
Along with North Korea, ARF members discussed Myanmar, South China Sea, Iran,
Afghanistan and counterterrorism.
The ARF is the only regional security dialogue forum attended by a North Korean
foreign minister, and it includes all member states of the six-party talks --
the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.
The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations groups Brunei, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and
Vietnam.
They form the ARF together with Japan, South Korea, China, India, Australia,
New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Russia, the European Union, North
Korea, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Bangladesh, East Timor, Mongolia and Sri
Lanka.
(Siti Rahil, Puy Kea and Varunee Torsricharoen contributed to this report)
==Kyodo