Bangkok - Thailand has invited North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun to attend regional security talks to be held this month on a Thai island, media reports said Wednesday. Panich Vikitset, a Beijing-based Foreign Ministry official, travelled to Pyongyang Monday to invite Pak to the July 19-23 Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum on security on Phuket, 600 kilometres south of Bangkok, the Bangkok Post reported.
"Thailand, as host of ASEAN, wants either the North Korean foreign minister or his deputy to come to Thailand to exchange views and discuss the problem of the North Korean peninsula," Panich, a special assistant to Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, told thenewspaper.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was among the leaders scheduled to attend the annual security conference as were foreign ministers from South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and possibly North Korea, all countries participating in the six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.
Tensions with North Korea have risen this year as it carried out its second nuclear test, a series of missile launches and threatened South Korea and the UN Security Council tightened sanctions on the totalitarian state.
If North Korea agrees to participate in the Phuket forum, a sideline meeting of the six-party group would be held on July 23, Panich said.
A similar six-party meeting was held on the sidelines of the regional security forum last year when it was hosted by Singapore.
The forum is deemed Asia's most important annual gathering on regional security issues, such as the North Korean nuclear threat and Myanmar's ongoing political instability.
The forum includes ASEAN's 10 member states, Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, China, East Timor, India, Japan, North Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, South Korea, the European Union, Russia and the United States.
Thailand, which is chairing ASEAN this year, plans to enforce the Internal Security Act July 10-24 to assure that the forum is not disrupted by anti-government protests.
Phuket was picked as the forum's host because Thailand's largest island is deemed a safe haven for the Democrat Party, which leads the current coalition government.
Thailand's attempt to host a summit of leaders from ASEAN and its close allies China, Japan and South Korea on April 12-13 at the beach resort of Pattaya near Bangkok was scuttled by anti-government protestors who stormed the conference venue.
On February 27 to March 1, Thailand successfully hosted an ASEAN summit in Hua Hin, another Democrat stronghold. In October, the kingdom was scheduled to host a second summit for the group, which consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
