Phnom Penh, June 18: US Secretary of State Colin Powell today urged Southeast Asian nations to join the United States in pressing North Korea to agree to multilateral talks on ending its nuclear weapons programs, a senior State Department official said. "Asean's help in keeping pressure on North Korea is absolutely necessary if we are to achieve the goal that all of us seek: a diplomatic solution that leaves the peninsula, the region and the world safer," the official quoted Powell as saying.
Powell told the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Regional Forum that the United States would not bend to North Korean "rhetoric" or "intimidation" and relent on its insistence that other countries be brought into the dialogue, according to the official.
"There is nothing the North Koreans can say to us that we will not share with our partners," Powell said, according to the official who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity.
"And there is no proposal that will come from us without the concurrence of our partners. There is, therefore, no need for a bilateral dialogue," Powell said according to the official.
Powell also called for Southeast Asian nations to step up pressure on Myanmar's military government, the official said.
"This is not a matter of Asean interfering in Burma's (Myanmar) internal affairs," the official quoted Powell as saying.
"It is a question of Asean insisting that one of its members heed the deep concerns of its neighbors and of the international community," Powell said, according to the official.

Bureau Report