China to host 6-nation security forum involving N. Korea

China will host an annual security conference next week that usually brings together government officials and scholars from all six nations involved in negotiations on North Korea's nuclear programs, an official said Wednesday.

The Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue (NEACD) has served as an opportunity for informal dialogue between North Korea and its nuclear negotiation partners -- South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States. Last year's meeting was held in Hawaii, but North Korean officials did not attend.

This year's meeting will be held in the Chinese port city of Dalian on Sept. 27-28, the foreign ministry official said on condition of anonymity, adding that the topics will focus on "peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula."

Lee Do-hoon, Seoul's deputy chief envoy to the six-party talks, is expected to attend the conference next week, according to the official. Other nations are likely to send their deputy chief nuclear envoys to the forum.

It is unclear whether North Korean officials involved in the six-party talks will join next week's meeting, but a diplomatic source in Seoul said there is a possibility that Ri Gun, director-general of U.S. affairs at the North's foreign ministry, may attend.

Should North Korea be at next week's meeting, it could be the first time since 2009 for officials from all six nations to join the annual meeting.

The six-party talks were last held in late 2008 and diplomatic efforts to resume the negotiations on ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions have been frozen since April, when North Korea defiantly launched a long-range rocket that failed moments after lift-off.

The launch drew strong condemnation from the U.N. Security Council as a disguised test of ballistic missile technology, and led to the collapse of the so-called "Leap Day" deal with the U.S., under which Washington would resume food aid to Pyongyang in return for a monitored shutdown of the North's nuclear activities. (Yonhap)

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