S. Korea to keep neutral stance on South China Sea dispute

SEOUL, July 19 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will maintain a neutral stance on rising tensions in the South China Sea at this week's security conference of Asian and Western powers in Indonesia, officials said Tuesday.
The dispute over the resource-rich South China Sea that encompasses an area from Singapore to Taiwan is becoming a new flashpoint in relations between the United States and China, and is expected to dominate the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), officials said.
In what some analysts billed as one of Asia's most potentially dangerous points of conflict, Brunei, the Philippines, China, Taiwan and Malaysia have made competing territorial claims over the South China Sea.
And the U.S. sees the marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean as part of its national interest, sparking protests from China, which wants to settle the issue bilaterally.
South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan will be in attendance at the 27-nation ARF, an annual venue for talks on security in Asia.
"Our basic position on the South China Sea is that we always put a close tab on the developments in this area as the sea is one of the major sea travel routes for Korea," Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Byung-jae said.
"We hold the basic position that all peaceful and unrestricted sea travels in this area in accordance with the International Law of the Sea should be respected.
"Any disagreement arising between the concerned countries should be resolved in a peaceful manner through dialogue in pursuance of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea," the spokesman said.
Cho denied a Japanese media report that the U.S. has proposed that South Korea and Japan jointly respond to the issue of the South China Sea at the ARF, dismissing it as "groundless."
Beside the South China Sea dispute, North Korea's nuclear program is also likely to be a major topic at the security forum.
On the sidelines of the forum, the foreign ministers of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan are expected to discuss efforts to get North Korea back to the stalled multilateral talks on the North's nuclear weapons program, ministry officials said.
The six-party talks, also involving China and Russia, have been stalled since late 2008. North Korea claims to be willing to return to the talks without preconditions, but South Korea and the U.S. have said Pyongyang must show its sincerity in denuclearizing before the resumption of the stalled talks can take place.
North Korea's state media reported that Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun will also attend the ARF, and South Korean Foreign Minister Kim said he was willing to meet Pak "through any channel available."
However, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has no plans to meet Pak during the forum.
"There are no plans for Secretary Clinton or other State Department officials to meet with the DPRK foreign minister in Bali," a State Department official told Yonhap News Agency, asking not to be named. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.