By Na Jeong-ju
Staff reporter
The Group of 20 Summit, scheduled to be held in Toronto, Canada, from June 26 to 27, is the world's premier forum on economic issues, but it will also be a diplomatic battlefield for President Lee Myung-bak.
On the sidelines of the summit, Lee plans to hold a series of bilateral talks with the leaders of G-20 member nations and international organizations to seek their backing for South Korea in pushing for U.N. condemnation of North Korea over the sinking of the Navy vessel Cheonan on March 26.
"The G-20 meeting provides a crucial opportunity to Seoul in seeking international consensus on the Cheonan case," a diplomatic source said Tuesday. "We will share all the evidence backing the North's torpedo attack with international leaders and seek their understanding of our efforts to prevent such a tragedy from happening again."
Lee will depart for Toronto Saturday to attend the meeting of the world's 20 wealthiest nations. He will then visit Panama and Mexico for talks on economic cooperation. He is scheduled to return to Seoul on July 3.
The remarks came amid reports that Canada, which also hosts the Group of 8 Summit on June 25, is working on the draft of a resolution blaming North Korea over the sinking so that the G-8 can adopt it at the end of the summit.
Russia reportedly opposed the action, saying the evidence presented by South Korea was not solid enough to prove North Korea's involvement.
The G-8 countries ― the United States, Japan, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Russia ― plan to coordinate policies on dealing with grave threats to global order.
These include the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran, and the conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Middle East.
In Toronto, President Lee will seek broader worldwide support for U.N. action against North Korea.
South Korea is currently working closely with the United States, Japan and other allies to seek condemnation of Pyongyang at the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) over the naval tragedy, in which 46 sailors died.
China and Russia, North Korea's two major allies with veto-wielding power at the UNSC, have been lukewarm about blaming the North for the sinking, amid forecast that they won't approve a UNSC statement condemning Pyongyang, let alone a resolution calling for further sanctions.
South Korean officials have said the country is seeking a stern warning to North Korea to prevent it from committing any further acts of provocation, rather than additional sanctions.
Last week, Seoul presented to the 15-member UNSC the outcome of the probe by a team of investigators from South Korea, the U.S., Australia, Britain and Sweden, calling for international action against Pyongyang.