South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and Chinese President Hu Jintao spoke by telephone on Friday and agreed to resolve North Korean problems by diplomatic means, Roh's spokesman said.
"Roh called Hu at 7 p.m. (local time) and talked about North Korean problems for 30 minutes. The two leaders shared deep concerns about North Korea's missile launches and agreed to closely cooperate to ease regional tension," Jung Tae-ho said.
"Roh and Hu agreed to seek various ways to help resume the six-way talks (on North Korea's nuclear weapons program). The two leaders also agreed to have their countries' diplomats launch intense multilateral diplomatic efforts for the resumption of the six-party talks on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum slated for July 28 in Kuala Lumpur," he said.
The spokesman said Roh has now spoken by phone with Hu three times since his inauguration as South Korea's head of state in February 2003.
"During the conversation, Roh stressed the need for a resolute decision to help restart the six-party talks as soon as possible, while Hu emphasized close consultations (between Seoul and Beijing) to resolve the pending issues," Jung explained.
Last week, China, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC), voted for a watered-down version of a UNSC resolution condemning North Korea for its July 5 missile launches and imposing limited economic sanctions on it.
The seeming gap between China and North Korea surfaced after a high-level Chinese delegation had failed to persuade the North to give up its nuclear and missile programs and return to the six-way talks aimed at ending them the preceding week.
The missiles were fired into waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan in defiance of international calls for the North to stop the provocative act and come back to the multilateral nuclear talks. The forum, involving South and North Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan, last met in November.
Earlier this week, South Korea and the U.S. agreed they will seek five-party talks without North Korea should it continue to boycott the dialogue.
China, the host of the six-party forum, has not explicitly agreed to the changed format but has shown some flexibility in recent days.
North Korea is refusing to reopen the six-party talks, citing U.S. sanctions on a Macau bank last September that is suspected of having laundered illicit money for Pyongyang. ycm
Seoul, July 21 (Yonhap News)
Roh, Hu agree to diplomatically resolve N. Korean issues |
