VARIOUS: South Korean Foreign Minister and frontrunner for Secretary-General position says hopes to solve North Korean nuclear crisis with creative dialogue

Just months after North Korea tested long-range ballistic missiles, there is growing concern that Pyongyang may be preparing to conduct missile tests -- this time underground. South Korea's foreign minster, Ban Ki-Moon believes the solution to the North Korean missile crisis will be found through creative dialogue with Kim Jong-il's government. "We of course are very much alarmed by that kind of speculative reports that North Korea may take underground nuclear tests. That may be very serious but we have been closely monitoring any developments in North Korea in close co-ordination with the countries concerned, including the United States but at this time we have not seen any evidence indicating such tests," he told Reuters in an interview in New York Friday (September 22). Japan's cabinet approved new financial sanctions against North Korea on Tuesday (September 19), cranking up pressure on the reclusive communist state to return to six-country talks on ending its nuclear program. Government officials said the step effectively freezes remittances and the transfer of funds from Japan by groups suspected of links to North Korea's weapons of mass destruction or missile programs. Informal polls showing Ban as the leading contender to succeed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan have strengthened his resolve to press for U.N. reforms. The United States and Annan have championed far-reaching reforms to increase accountability, fight corruption and give the secretary-general more power and flexibility to manage the organization without input from the 192-nation General Assembly. But most of the proposals were rejected by the majority of nations, many of whom saw it as an attempt to take power away from them. Ban finished first in two informal straw polls of U.N. Security Council members, in July and this month. The 15-member Council, which holds another poll next week, selects a candidate, who then must be confirmed by the General Assembly. Annan, a Ghanaian, steps down on Dec. 31 after two five-year terms as the world body's leader. Ban said he would focus on U.N. reform and reorganization to make the United Nations "more effective, more efficient and more relevant" to tackling problems like terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and environmental degradation. South Korea, which owes its existence to a U.N. military intervention in 1950 to halt an invasion by Communist North Korea was once poor and authoritarian. Ban said, "Korea and the United Nations have been enjoying such a very special and unique relationship since the birth of our country and the United Nations. We can play a bridging role between developing and developed countries as we have gone through all this process. We can also play a bridging role between democratic and countries in transition and we can also apply this collective wisdom of Korean government and myself to have gone through reforms and innovative measures which we have taken all throughout the sectors of Korea." According to U.N. tradition, the next secretary-general should come from Asia, although the United States believes the race should be wide open. Ban also touched on the issue of South Korea's relationship with Japan. Ban said he hopes the incoming Japanese government will ease tensions over history that has roiled Seoul's ties with Tokyo in recent years, Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said on Friday. Ban said South Korea's business and cultural ties with Japan remained strong, but Seoul hoped to end political estrangement and build "more future-oriented and mutually beneficial and friendlier relations" with its former colonial ruler. Shinzo Abe was elected the leader of Japan's ruling party on Wednesday, setting the stage for him to succeed Junichiro Koizumi as prime minister. Japan's relations with South Korea and China plunged to their lowest level in decades under Koizumi, but the change in leadership in Japan has raised hopes for improved ties. South Korea, a Japanese colony from 1910-45, strongly objected to Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni shrine, where war criminals are honoured alongside Japan's war dead, and to Japanese school textbooks that Koreans say whitewash history. Ban said Seoul has always opposed visits to Yasukuni by Japanese leaders and would continue do so in the Abe era.

ITN Source | September 23, 2006

Tags:. .missiles. .halt. .sanctions. .contender. .colonial