(LEAD) FM Yun arrives in Malaysia for security talks

(ATTN: UPDATES with Yun's arrival, other details in paras 1-7; CHANGES headline)
By Lee Haye-ah

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug. 4 (Yonhap) -- Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se arrived in Malaysia Tuesday for a series of regional talks where the territorial dispute in the South China Sea and North Korea's nuclear weapons program are expected to be high on the agenda.

Yun will join the ASEAN-led meetings for two days starting Wednesday while also holding bilateral talks with his counterparts from major participating nations on the sidelines.

For South Korea, the ASEAN Regional Forum on Thursday will be a key platform on which it can drum up international support for its efforts to thwart North Korea's nuclear weapons development.

Yun is scheduled to hold separate talks with his counterparts from Indonesia, the EU, Russia and China on Wednesday. Talks are also under way to arrange bilateral meetings with the U.S. and Japan.

The two Koreas, Japan, China, Russia and the U.S. are members of the stalled six-party talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear program, talks that have drawn new attention in light of the recent progress in international efforts to curb Iran's uranium enrichment program.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong will also join the ARF, the only regional security gathering to which the communist state is a party.

He arrived in Kuala Lumpur just hours before Yun.

"Minister Yun will stress the need for the international community to urge North Korea's denuclearization with one voice at the ARF meeting, while urging North Korea's meaningful return to denuclearization talks and expressing his will to improve inter-Korean ties through the resumption of South-North dialogue," the Foreign Ministry said in a press release Monday.

Yun and Ri are expected to have several opportunities to meet each other due to their partly overlapping schedules, which include a gala dinner hosted by the Malaysian foreign minister on Wednesday and the ARF meeting on Thursday.

Last year, the two ministers shook hands during the gala dinner at the ARF meeting in Myanmar, but did not hold official talks.

South Korea has said it is open to dialogue with the North, but critics have raised doubts about a meaningful meeting between the two as inter-Korean tensions persist over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program and human rights abuses, among other issues.

North Korea on Monday approved a visit to the communist country by Lee Hee-ho, the widow of the late former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung. South Korea has stressed that the four-day trip starting Wednesday will be of a private nature.

Aside from North Korea's nuclear program, the ARF meeting is expected to be dominated by a fierce debate over the territorial dispute in the South China Sea, with China and the U.S. vying to have their voices heard.

South Korea's position in the dispute has been that it is in its interest to maintain peace and stability in the waters that serve as a key trade route for the country.

hague@yna.co.kr
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