Seoul to try to persuade ASEAN to condemn DPRK for Cheonan attack.

SEOUL, July 6 (Itar-Tass) - South Korea is making attempts to convince
the largest regional organisation of Asia of the need to condemn North
Korea for the organisation of a torpedo attack on March 26 against the
Cheonan corvette, the Yonhap news agency reported on Tuesday. Official
Seoul intends to make these attempts in Hanoi on July 23 at a
ministerial-level meeting of 26 members countries of the Regional Forum of
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Delegations of North
Korea, as well as key countries of the organisation, including the United
States, European Union, China and Russia will take part in the work of
this major security forum.
According to Yonhap, South Korea is trying to convince Asia's biggest
security grouping to condemn North Korea for the deadly sinking of a
warship when it convenes this year's session in Vietnam later this month,
officials said Tuesday. Foreign ministers of 26 Asia-Pacific nations are
scheduled to meet in Hanoi on July 23 for an annual meeting of the ASEAN
Regional Forum (ARF) that brings together North Korea and all other key
players on security issues.
The forum, hosted by the 10-member ASEAN, has served as an important
venue for discussions on North Korea. The communist nation is expected to
feature high in this year's session, too, as it comes amid tensions over
the North's sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan in March,
according to the report.
South Korea, which referred the case to the UN Security Council last
month for a rebuke of the North, wants the ARF to adopt a strongly worded
statement condemning Pyongyang for the unprovoked torpedo attack that
killed 46 sailors. The key to such a statement is support from Vietnam,
which will chair the session, officials said.
Last Friday, South Korea and Vietnam held economic cooperation talks
in Seoul. Though the meeting focused heavily on trade and investment
issues, South Korea also tried to seek Vietnamese support for its push for
an ARF statement on North Korea, officials said, Yonhap reported. "We're
trying hard, but we can't say it will be going smoothly because Southeast
Asian nations have their own considerations of relations with North
Korea," an official said on condition of anonymity.
North Korea has denied any role in the sinking, claiming that the
South fabricated the outcome of an international investigation that found
the regime responsible. Pyongyang has had friendly ties with such ASEAN
members as Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. Officials said Pyongyang's Foreign
Minister Pak Ui-chun is expected to attend this year's session that will
also draw Seoul's Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan and US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton.
The forum will mark the first time that high-level officials from the
two Koreas have face-to-face debates over the sinking since the disaster
dealt a heavy blow to the already frayed relations between the two sides,
according to Yonhap.
Pak is expected to try to block South Korea's efforts to condemn the
regime for the sinking. At the ARF's 2008 meeting in Singapore, North
Korea diluted Seoul's push to censure Pyongyang over the shooting death of
a South Korean tourist at a mountain resort in the North by succeeding in
inserting one of its demands in a chairman's statement.
The 26 ARF members are Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia,
Canada, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Laos,
Malaysia, Myanmar, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the
Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, East Timor, the
United States and Vietnam plus the European Union.
ROKS Cheonan (PCC-772) was a South Korean Pohang-class corvette of the
Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN), commissioned in 1989. On 26 March 2010, it
broke in two and sank near the sea border with North Korea. An
international investigation concluded Cheonan was sunk by a torpedo
launched by a North Korean Yeono class miniature submarine.
On 26 March 2010, an explosion occurred near the rear of the Cheonan,
causing the ship to break in two. The cause of this explosion was not
immediately determined, although experts said that an external explosion
was likely, as the structure of the ship was bent upwards, rather than
evenly splitting as would have happened if metal fatigue had been the
cause, and that an internal explosion was unlikely, as explosives on board
the ship were undamaged.
The 1,200 tonne ship started sinking at 21:20 local time (12:20 UTC)
about 1 nautical mile (1.9 km) off the south-west coast of Baengnyeong
Island in the Yellow Sea. The island is located on the South Korean (ROK)
side of the Northern Limit Line, the de facto boundary dividing South from
North Korea (DPRK). The ship had a crew of 104 men at the time of sinking,
and a total of 58 crew were rescued. Another 46 crew were unaccounted for.
Cheonan's captain, Commander Choi Won-il, said that the ship broke into
two and the stern sank within five minutes after the explosion and while
he was still assessing the situation. On 17 April 2010, North Korea denied
any involvement in the sinking of Cheonan.
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