Lee urges NK to halt all nuclear activities

BALI, Indonesia (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said Saturday North Korea should halt all illegal nuclear activities and pledge not to restart them if the stalled six-party talks are to resume, an official said.

Lee made the remarks during a three-way summit with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on the sidelines of regional summits with Southeast Asian and other nations in the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

"The way to create the least trust needed for resuming the six-party talks is for North Korea to halt all illegal nuclear activities and promise not to restart them," Lee said during the meeting, according to senior presidential press secretary Choe Guem-nak.

"I hope the three countries will cooperate closely to get North Korea to make a decision to give up nuclear programs," Lee was quoted as saying.

Japanese Prime Minister Noda accused Pyongyang of showing no change in its attitude despite a series of bilateral negotiations with South Korea and the U.S., stressing that the six-party talks can succeed only when the North is serious about giving up its nuclear ambitions.

But Chinese Premier Wen took a slightly different position, calling only for restarting the six-party talks at an early date, the official said. That stance is similar to Pyongyang's call for reopening the nuclear talks without preconditions.

China is the North's last-remaining major ally and provider of aid and diplomatic support.

South Korea, the U.S. and Japan have been exerting pressure on North Korea to halt its uranium enrichment program and take other concrete steps that demonstrate its denuclearization commitment before the six-party talks resume.

On economic issues, the three leaders agreed to continue close cooperation to realize a three-way free trade agreement. The countries are scheduled to complete a joint study on the envisioned FTA this year, and the leaders agreed to try to implement recommendations from the study.

A series of cooperation projects were also suggested in the meeting, including Lee's offer to establish a three-way education ministers' meeting, Japan's proposal to launch cooperation talks between the three countries and Mekong River nations -- Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand -- and China's offer to hold three-way cultural and environment ministers' talks, Choe said.

The leaders also praised September's establishment in Seoul of a cooperation secretariat handling joint projects between the three countries, and agreed to cooperate to develop the office into a model of regional cooperation, the presidential office said in a statement.

"There has been brisk cooperation among the three countries in various areas this year and this is also a meaningful year as there was progress in institutionalizing (the cooperation)," Lee said in his opening remarks, referring to the secretariat's establishment.

"The secretariat upgraded cooperation between the three countries to a new level," he said. "Cooperation between the three countries will contribute to stability in Northeast Asia and global economic recovery amid increasing uncertainties in the global economy."

South Korean Ambassador Shin Bong-kil, the secretariat's first head, also attended the summit.

The Northeast Asian neighbors have annually held a three-way meeting on the sidelines of regional summits organized by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). They hold another three-way summit in one of the three countries alternately, with Japan hosting this year's meeting in May.

In the May summit, South Korea and China expressed strong solidarity for Japan, which was then suffering from the aftermath of March's massive earthquake and tsunami as well as the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. Lee and Wen visited villages close to the nuclear accident site.

In his opening comments, Noda expressed "deep gratitude" for the support South Korea and China provided Japan in the wake of the disasters in March.

Noda said the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was heading toward stabilization and promised to continue to provide South Korea and China with related information in a swift manner.

Lee was to spend the rest of Saturday mostly at meetings of the East Asia Summit forum, an 18-nation group that includes the United States and Russia. U.S. President Barack Obama has been in Bali for the meetings.

Obama's attendance has been a focus of South Korean media attention due to the possibility of him meeting with Lee to talk about the free trade agreement between the two countries, though officials said such a meeting is unlikely.

The trade pact, which was approved by the U.S. Congress last month, has been deadlocked in the South Korean parliament as the main opposition Democratic Party has demanded the scrapping of a dispute-settlement clause in the deal that it claims unfairly favors the U.S.

The EAS forum also brings together all five countries that have been negotiating with North Korea for years to end the communist nation's nuclear programs under the six-party talks. The talks involve the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the U.S.