SEOUL, June 4 (Reuters) - South Korean President Lee Myung-bak will urge the world on Friday to respond firmly to North Korean aggression and try to convince the reclusive state to give up its nuclear weapons programme.
Lee, speaking at a security conference in Singapore, will also stress the importance of the North returning to stalled six-party talks on ending its atomic ambitions and reaching a successful conclusion, the presidential Blue House said.
South Korea has blamed the North for sinking a naval vessel, the Cheonan, in March, killing 46 sailors. The North denies responsibility and has regularly accused the South of staging the incident to help Lee in this week’s local elections.
"The international community must join in efforts to convince the North’s leadership to discard the belief that the way to survival as a powerful nation is by nuclear armament," Lee will say.
Lee will also stress that the six-party talks "must be used to fundamentally resolve the North Korean nuclear problem", the Blue House said.
"Lee will stress the graveness of the North Korean nuclear issue and the Cheonan incident and will underscore the need for the international community to respond firmly to the North’s threats to peace and stability of the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia," it said in a statement.
"The Cheonan incident in particular requires the North to admit to its wrongdoing and promise that similar incidents will not be repeated."
A North Korean envoy said in Geneva on Thursday that war could erupt at any time on the Korean peninsula.
North Korea’s troops were on "full alert and readiness to promptly react to any retaliation", including the scenario of all-out war, Ri Jang Gon, North Korea’s deputy ambassador in Geneva, told the U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament.
Ri said that only the conclusion of a peace treaty between the two countries would lead to the "successful denuclearisation" of the peninsula. The 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, but no formal treaty.
