ARF backs bid to solve nuke crisis
US, N Korean officials hold talks
AFP, Jakarta
A major Asia-Pacific security forum gave strong support yesterday to new efforts to end the North Korean nuclear crisis, as the US and North Korean foreign ministers held rare high-level talks on the sidelines of the meeting. Members of the Asean Regional Forum (ARF), in a statement after their annual meeting, "emphasised the importance of a step-by-step process of 'words for words' and 'action for action'." US Secretary of State Colin Powell has promised to match North Korea "deed for deed" if it agrees to dismantle its nuclear weapons and halt their development under a US plan laid out last week. Powell and his North Korean counterpart, Paek Nam-Sun, met privately early Friday and both sides indicated some progress was made. It was the first face-to-face cabinet-level contact since 2002 between the United States and the secretive communist state, which Washington has branded as part of an "axis of evil." The ARF foreign ministers also condemned terrorism as a worldwide threat, agreed to work together to improve transport security and urged army-ruled Myanmar to move towards democracy. Powell spoke of an "opportunity for concrete progress" after his 20-minute meeting with Paek. The North Koreans said that if the United States intends to improve relations, "the DPRK (North Korea) also will not regard the US as a permanent enemy..." Paek in a statement said the North is still committed to denuclearising the Korean peninsula peacefully. ARF, whose membership rose to 24 after Pakistan joined yesterday, includes all parties involved in separate "six-party" talks on resolving the nuclear crisis -- the United States, China, Japan, Russia and North and South Korea.
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