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North Korea: Powell Speaks With North Korean Diplomat U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell held a brief conversation with a North Korean diplomat yesterday during a chance encounter at a Pan-Asian security conference (see GSN, June 18). Powell spoke to Ho Jong, a North Korean delegate to this week’s meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Powell reiterated the U.S. desire for multilateral talks to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis. “Briefly, at the end of lunch, they bumped into each other, they shook hands and exchanged a few words,” a U.S. official said. Speaking at the conference, Powell said that “no issue is of greater urgency” to the United States than North Korea’s nuclear development (Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, June 19). However, Pyongyang is pressing for one-on-one talks with the United States, Ho said in a speech during the conference (George Gedda, Associated Press/Boston Globe, June 19). Frustrated by the lack of progress in resolving the crisis, the White House is pressuring other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to censure North Korea for its continuing nuclear efforts. U.S. diplomats held talks in New York yesterday with Russia, France and the United Kingdom to develop a statement condemning Pyongyang for its withdrawal from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Washington hopes to have a statement ready by the end of the month, the Washington Post reported (Colum Lynch, Washington Post, June 19). U.S. President George W. Bush did not, however, receive support from his Asian allies in the effort to move the North Korean issue to the Security Council. “We have various steps to take” first, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said today. Koizumi welcomed an appeal from Asian foreign ministers for Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear capabilities. “It is important for as many countries as possible to be interested in North Korea,” he said (Kyodo News Service/BBC Monitoring, June 19). South Korea also urged patience in pushing the nuclear crisis to the Security Council. “While the U.S. position is that the Security Council should begin deliberations within several weeks, our position is that the timing of such discussions should be decided after monitoring the developments in this phase of dialogue,” South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck said today (Yonhap News Agency/BBC Monitoring, June 19). Japanese Shipping Controls Continue Tokyo has cracked down lately on Pyongyang’s shipping links to Japan, and a North Korean ship sat idle off the Japanese coast for the sixth day yesterday. The Man Gyong Bong-92 has not been allowed to enter port because of poor safety measures onboard. The ship’s captain has refused to leave without unloading his cargo. The Japanese attentiveness to ships’ safety came just after revelations that North Korea was using its shipping to smuggle missile technology out of Japan, and Tokyo has pledged to crack down on the illegal trade (Asahi Shimbun, June 19).
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