(Yonhap Interview) Australian senate president urges Pyongyang to return to dialogue table
SEOUL, July 3 (Yonhap) -- The Australian senate president, who is in Seoul to attend a meeting of five middle-power countries, on Friday urged North Korea to immediately return to the dialogue table and stop provocations.
The meeting, the first of its kind since 2013, when South Korea, Mexico, Indonesia, Turkey and Australia launched a cross-regional group, known as "MIKTA," from the initials of their English names, kicked off Wednesday for a five-day run.
But Turkey did not send its delegation to the meeting as Turkey has yet to pick a new parliamentary speaker following recent elections. The top Turkish envoy to Seoul participated instead.
The five are members of the G-20, the group of 20 major economies, but they do not belong to the G-7 or BRICs, two other groupings of major and emerging global economies.
"Australia does not believe that the North should be using provocations ... and come back to the negotiating table," Stephen Parry said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency.
Parry also said that "Australia stands shoulder to shoulder with the Republic of Korea (South Korea) in the reference of the reunification."
The Australian politician noted he was impressed with what South Korean National Assembly Speaker Chung Ui-hwa proposed at the meeting.
Chung proposed to other parliament speakers the idea of helping the cash-strapped, communist North through the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) on the condition that it gives up its nuclear weapons program.
Parry has been a Liberal Party member of the Australian Senate since July 2005, representing the state of Tasmania.
khj@yna.co.kr
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