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RI urges resumption of six-party talks

Indonesia has conveyed its “deep concerns” after North Korea’s recent launch of a ballistic missile that landed in Japanese-controlled waters on Wednesday, the latest in a string of acts carried out by the isolated nation in defiance of UN resolutions

Tama Salim (The Jakarta Post)
Fri, August 5, 2016

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RI urges resumption of six-party talks

I

ndonesia has conveyed its “deep concerns” after North Korea’s recent launch of a ballistic missile that landed in Japanese-controlled waters on Wednesday, the latest in a string of acts carried out by the isolated nation in defiance of UN resolutions.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arrmanatha Nasir singled out North Korea’s actions as “going against comprehensive nuclear-free agreements and various UN Security Council resolutions,” while calling on all countries to exercise self-restraint.

“We ask all countries in the region not to be provoked and continue efforts to dampen the tensions, or refrain from those that may lead to escalation,” Arrmanatha said on Thursday.

Having recently pushed for a joint ASEAN statement reaffirming the importance of regional peace and stability, the government called for the resumption of dialogue under the framework of the six-party talks, a series of meetings initiated in 2002 between the two Koreas along with China, Japan, Russia and the US.

“We regret [North Korea’s actions], considering last week there was a certain fervor among ASEAN ministers and their dialogue partners to issue a statement to maintain regional peace and stability,” he said.

In late July in Laos, Indonesia and other ASEAN member states urged countries in possession of nuclear weapons to immediately sign and ratify the Southeast Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ) treaty in hopes that it would ensure Southeast Asia remained free of nuclear weapons.

At the time, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi also revealed that the government was formulating a nuclear safety legislation that builds on the SEANWFZ and criminalizes the stockpiling of nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, various representatives of countries involved in the six-party talks are still pointing fingers at each other for disturbing the fragile peace in the region.

US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power hit back at suggestions that a US decision to deploy an advanced anti-missile defense system in South Korea had provoked recent ballistic missile tests by North Korea.

Pyongyang’s ally China has said Washington’s decision last month to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system would only worsen tensions on the Korean peninsula. North Korea threatened a physical response to the deployment decision.

Speaking after the UN Security Council met on North Korea’s missile launch on Wednesday, which landed in Japanese-controlled waters for the first time, Power said the anti-missile system was to defend against the threat by North Korea.

“Any notion that there’s some predicate by anybody other than Kim Jong-un and the DPRK (North Korea) regime is not grounded in reality and it’s not grounded in history,” Power told reporters after the closed-door meeting, in reference to the North Korean leader.

China’s UN Ambassador Liu Jieyi said that nothing should be done to exacerbate tensions on the Korean peninsula.

When asked what could be done to de-escalate the situation, he said: “If you look at the factors contributing to the tension in the Korean peninsula I think the answer is self-evident.”

The 15-member UN Security Council met at the request of Japan and the US following the latest in a series of launches by isolated North Korea in defiance of council resolutions.


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