South Pacific leaders urge DPRK to return to six-party talks
25/10/2006 17:09
Leaders from 16 South Pacific countries called on the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea (DPRK) to return to the six-party talks on the Korean
Peninsula nuclear issue.
The leaders attending the two-day 37th Pacific
Islands Forum (PIF) in Nadi , Fiji said the talks, involving the DPRK, South
Korea, China, the United States, Japan and Russia, were the most effective
mechanism to resolve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.
They said in
a forum communique that the DPRK was "the only party placing conditions on
reconvening the six-party talks."
Forum leaders called on the DPRK "to return
immediately and without delay to these talks," said the communique.
The
six-party talks have been stalled since September last year when the DPRK
boycotted the US financial restrictions against Pyongyang.
The leaders
welcomed UN Security Council resolution 1718, which unanimously adopted by the
15-member body earlier this month, imposes sanctions on the DPRK in areas
related to weapons of mass destruction and demands Pyongyang eliminate all its
nuclear weapons and return to six-party talks aimed at ending its nuclear
program.
The PIF, set up in 1971, groups Australia, the Cook Islands, the
Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau,
Papua New Guinea, the Marshall Islands, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga,
Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
The DPRK announced on Oct. 9 that it had successfully
conducted its first nuclear test.
Xinhua News
|
