HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Tensions over North Korea are expected to overshadow Asia's largest security forum this week in Vietnam — four months after 46 South Korean sailors were killed in the sinking of a warship that was blamed on Pyongyang.
The reclusive North, which has denied attacking the 1,200-ton Cheonan, is expected to send its top diplomat to the annual security meeting organized by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and her South Korean counterpart will also attend, marking the first time the three have met since the deadly sinking.
Foreign ministers from the 10-member countries started arriving in the tightly guarded Vietnamese capital of Hanoi on Monday, a day before the official opening ceremony, to hold talks on how to improve the enforcement of a treaty banning nuclear weapons from the region. The Korean ship incident was also discussed.
"They certainly expressed their concerns about whether such an issue will lead to further instability and insecurity and potential flare-ups, which will not be good for the region," ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said on the sidelines after the talks.
The foreign ministers will be joined later in the week by officials from the Asia-Pacific, Europe and the United States for the ASEAN Regional Forum.
The ministers’ agenda is heavy with issues surrounding the bloc’s goal of establishing a European-style economic community by 2015, and the lingering hardship created by the global financial crisis.
But North Korea and military-ruled Myanmar are expected to dominate discussions.
An international team of investigators concluded in May that a North Korean submarine fired a torpedo that sank the Cheonan in the tense waters near the two Koreas’ maritime border on March 26. Pyongyang denies any responsibility, and has warned any punishment would trigger war.
ASEAN and ARF ministers strongly condemned the sinking, but avoided laying blame.
"We expressed deep concern over the sinking of the ship Cheonan and the rising tension on the Korean peninsula," separate draft statements obtained by The Associated Press said. "We urge all parties concerned to exercise utmost restraint, enhance confidence and trust, settle disputes by peaceful means."
Participants also will seek the resumption of stalled six-way talks aimed at ending the North’s nuclear weapons program. The last nuclear disarmament talks involving the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States were held in Beijing in December 2008.
Pitsuwan said the ASEAN member states are encouraging formal or informal meetings among the parties to take place this week.
The two Koreas technically remain in a state of war because their three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953. North and South are divided by a heavily fortified border, and the U.S. keeps 28,500 troops in South Korea to protect the longtime ally.
Pyongyang, which has tested two nuclear weapons in recent years, routinely cites the U.S. presence as a key reason behind its drive to build nuclear weapons.
The ASEAN ministers also will press Myanmar, which plans to call general elections this year, to hold its polls in a "free, fair and inclusive manner with the participation of all political parties," according to the draft statement.
The reclusive junta has yet to set a date for the elections, Myanmar’s first in two decades. Critics have dismissed the election as a sham designed to cement nearly 50 years of military rule in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
Detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party will boycott the vote, citing unfair elections laws. Her party has since been disbanded.
Additionally, Myanmar has been suspected of embarking on a nuclear program with the aim of developing a bomb — with backing from North Korea. Myanmar denied those allegations on Monday when the issue was raised at Monday’s nuclear meeting, said Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya.
"We welcome the Myanmar government’s pronouncement that their nuclear research has nothing to do with military activities," he said on the meeting’s sidelines.
He added that some ministers expressed a desire to build nuclear power plants, but that there was agreement that the process should be transparent because any accident could affect neighboring countries.
The ASEAN ministers will also work on the agenda of a summit in October between their heads of state and President Barack Obama.
ASEAN, founded in 1967, groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It admitted Myanmar in 1997, despite strong opposition from Western nations.
