Asia’s biggest annual security conference issued a toned-down statement on North Korea on Friday, after the communist state threatened to quit the organisation if it condemns the country’s missile launches.
”Most ministers expressed concern over the test-firing of missiles … and such tests could have adverse repercussions on peace, stability and security in the region,” said the statement issued by Malaysia in its capacity as chair of this year’s meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The final statement was softer than a draft statement seen by The Associated Press earlier in the day.
The draft had said ”The ministers,” not ”most ministers”, expressed concern. It had also urged ”all parties concerned to exercise restraint and refrain from any further provocative action”, but the final version had no such language.
The alterations apparently came after North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun warned that his country could quit the forum after a statement was issued condemning the country’s missile tests earlier this month.
”If ARF strongly imposes contents of a joint statement against the will of some countries without consensus, we will think about whether we will remain,” the minister said, according to a South Korean official who did not elaborate.
Paek spoke at an opening session of the annual forum that also drew his counterparts from 25 countries and the European Union.
North Korea was a key issue at the conference after it test-launched missiles earlier this month, escalating tensions in a region that had already been grappling with concerns over the North’s nuclear programme.
This week’s conference brought together all six members of the long-stalled talks on the North Korean nuclear issue — China, Japan, the Koreas, Russia and the United States. Many had hoped the six-party talks would be revived on the sidelines of the meeting.
North Korea has refused to negotiate since November to protest a US crackdown on its alleged financial wrongdoing and indicated on Thursday it had no intention of dropping its demand for Washington to end the sanctions. — Sapa-AP