Leaders from 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum on Sunday wrapped up their two-day summit here after endorsing a chairman's oral statement calling on North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
The tough statement against North Korea's nuclear testing was announced separately from the APEC leaders' special statement and declaration on their renewed pledge to revive stalled global trade talks.
"We express our strong concern over the July 4-5 missile launches and Oct. 9 nuclear test conducted by the DPRK, which poses a clear threat to our shared interest of peace and security and our shared goal of achieving a nuclear-weapons-free Korean Peninsula," the statement said. DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.
"We stress the need for full implementation of Security Council Resolutions 1695 and 1718. We emphasize our strong support for the six-party talks and are encouraged by the recent progress on resuming the talks. We call for concrete and effective steps toward full implementation of the Sept. 19, 2005 joint statement and the early resumption of the six-party talks."
On Sept. 19 last year, North Korea signed a widely heralded denuclearization agreement and pledged to "abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs." In return, the other participants in the talks -- South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia -- agreed to respect the North's sovereignty and offer security guarantees and economic benefits.
The statement then reiterated the APEC leaders' commitment to peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia, and their resolve toward a peaceful resolution of the North Korea nuclear issue.
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, U.S. President George W. Bush and other regional leaders have engaged in rounds of bilateral summit talks to coordinate their stances against North Korea ahead of the resumption of the six-party talks on terminating the communist state's nuclear program. The talks, deadlocked for over a year due to North Korea's boycott, are expected to restart in early December.
Speaking at the closing session of the APEC summit, meanwhile, President Roh made public South Korea's plan to donate US$2 million in aid to APEC between 2007 and 2009, his spokesman Yoon Tae-young said.
"Roh also disclosed South Korea's programs to help narrow the regional information divide, including inviting Asia-Pacific IT experts to Seoul for training, dispatching IT volunteers to APEC member economies and constructing IT centers in Asia-Pacific rim countries," Yoon said.
The Asia-Pacific leaders reaffirmed their determination to pursue global free trade by adopting the "Hanoi Declaration" and a special statement on the Doha Development Agenda (DDA).
"We reaffirmed that support for the DDA remains a top priority of APEC. The consequences of the failure of the Doha Round would be too grave for our economies and for the global multilateral trading system," the Hanoi Declaration said.
"We acknowledged the role of high-quality, consistent, transparent and comprehensive Regional Trade Agreements/Free Trade Agreements in advancing trade liberalization and the need to ensure that RTAs/FTAs lead to greater trade liberalization and genuine reductions in trade transaction costs."
APEC consists of South Korea, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.
Hanoi, Nov. 19 (Yonhap News)
APEC leaders urge N. Korea to give up nuclear ambitions |
