S Korea, Thailand criticise North over tests
Monday, 1 June 2009
SEOGWIPO, South Korea, May 31 (AP): South Korea and Thailand criticised North Korea Sunday, saying the country's nuclear test threatens world peace and stability and harms efforts to prevent atomic proliferation.
The two nations' leaders discussed Pyongyang's latest nuclear blast on the sidelines of a summit between South Korea and Southeast Asian countries being held amid heavy security.
The event was planned months ago, but North Korea's underground nuclear test and a series of short-range missile launches last week threatens to steal the limelight from economic matters, the main focus of the agenda.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva agreed that the test goes against international efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation and "undermines peace and stability not only in East Asia but also in the whole world," Lee Dong-kwan, the South Korean president's chief spokesman, told reporters.
They also agreed to exert diplomatic pressure to assure North Korea complies with UN Security Council resolutions and "promptly returns to six-party talks" aimed at ridding it of nuclear weapons.
The summit venue of Seogwipo - on the island of Jeju off the southern coast - is the South Korean city farthest away from the North. Still, the nervous South Korean government is taking no chances, positioning a surface-to-air missile outside the venue aimed toward the north.
Some 5,000 police officers, including approximately 200 commandos, and special vehicles that can analyse sarin gas and other chemicals have been deployed nearby, security authorities said in a press release. Marines, special forces and air patrols also kept watch on the island.
Leaders of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations began arriving for the two-day summit, which officially begins Monday and commemorates 20 years of relations between South Korea and the bloc. South Korea's president planned to use Sunday for individual meetings with ASEAN leaders.
But concerns about North Korea's most recent bout of saber-rattling loomed. South Korean officials said Saturday that spy satellites had spotted signs that the North may be preparing to transport a long-range missile to a launch site.
The two nations' leaders discussed Pyongyang's latest nuclear blast on the sidelines of a summit between South Korea and Southeast Asian countries being held amid heavy security.
The event was planned months ago, but North Korea's underground nuclear test and a series of short-range missile launches last week threatens to steal the limelight from economic matters, the main focus of the agenda.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva agreed that the test goes against international efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation and "undermines peace and stability not only in East Asia but also in the whole world," Lee Dong-kwan, the South Korean president's chief spokesman, told reporters.
They also agreed to exert diplomatic pressure to assure North Korea complies with UN Security Council resolutions and "promptly returns to six-party talks" aimed at ridding it of nuclear weapons.
The summit venue of Seogwipo - on the island of Jeju off the southern coast - is the South Korean city farthest away from the North. Still, the nervous South Korean government is taking no chances, positioning a surface-to-air missile outside the venue aimed toward the north.
Some 5,000 police officers, including approximately 200 commandos, and special vehicles that can analyse sarin gas and other chemicals have been deployed nearby, security authorities said in a press release. Marines, special forces and air patrols also kept watch on the island.
Leaders of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations began arriving for the two-day summit, which officially begins Monday and commemorates 20 years of relations between South Korea and the bloc. South Korea's president planned to use Sunday for individual meetings with ASEAN leaders.
But concerns about North Korea's most recent bout of saber-rattling loomed. South Korean officials said Saturday that spy satellites had spotted signs that the North may be preparing to transport a long-range missile to a launch site.