Jakarta. Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa held talks with his North Korean counterpart Pak Ui Chun and said there was an “inherent risk” attached to the current freeze in six-party talks over the North’s nuclear programme.

He said he had repeated Indonesia’s condemnation of the sinking of a South Korean warship in March with the loss of 46 lives, without blaming North Korea as the US, South Korea and other countries have done. “Our emphasis is on the future in terms of wanting to ensure that the conditions conducive to the return to six-party talks are created,” Natalegawa said after meeting.

North Korea has offered to return to the stalled disarmament dialogue involving the two Koreas plus China, Japan, Russia and the US. The talks have been on ice since December 2008. In April last year the North announced it was quitting the forum before staging its second nuclear weapons test a month later.

The United States and South Korea have said that before negotiations can resume, Pyongyang must acknowledge its role in the sinking of the warship, sincerely commit to scrapping its atomic weapons and halt provocative actions.

“Sooner or later, all parties must return to the dialogue, to the negotiation process,” Natalegawa said. “In our view, in the Indonesian view, sooner is better than later because otherwise there is an inherent risk of events developing out of control and we may end up in a situation where we don’t want to be.”

The US and South Korea accuse the North of torpedoing the Cheonan near the disputed Yellow Sea border in March — a charge Pyongyang denies.

Source: The Independent Daily – 3 August 2010
Photo: Associated Free Press