North Korea’s second highest leader is slated
to travel to Jakarta to meet with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono amid
global concerns over the country’s nuclear programme and recent failed rocket
launch.
Foreign
Minister Marty Natalegawa confirmed that a meeting between Kim Yong-nam and the
president has been planned.
"There
have been intensified talks for some time between Pyongyang and Jakarta over
the planned visit,” said Marty, who refused to elaborate on the planned agenda.
"The
two governments are still assessing the plan.”
A
source at the Presidential Palace said Kim and several of the country’s
ministers would arrive in June, with talks over global security at the top of
the agenda.
Kim,
84, is the president of North Korea’s Presidium of the Supreme People’s
Assembly, whose power is believed to be just below that of the country’s new
leader, Kim Jong-un.
He is
also known to function as North Korea’s foreign minister.
Should
the plan be realised, it would be Kim’s third visit to Indonesia in the past
decade. He last visited in 2005 to attend the Asian-African Conference. In
2002, he met then-president Megawati Soekarnoputri, whose family’s relationship
with the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il dates back to 1964.
The
meeting could be significant for Indonesia’s global role, particularly given
that the visit was being planned amid international condemnation of Pyongyang’s
rocket launch.
"We’re
hoping the meeting will materialise, given the importance of North Korea to the
world’s security,” Yudhoyono’s foreign affairs spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said.
Experts
believe the meeting will be an opportunity for Yudhoyono to persuade the
“rogue” nation to comply with international calls for stability in the region.
"Yudhoyono
needs to assure Kim that the world will back him up if he is eager to
‘silently’ have greater control of North Korea and smoothly bring change in the
peninsula,” foreign affairs expert Hikmahanto Juwana of the University of
Indonesia said.
He
believed Kim could play a big role as he was politically more mature than North
Korea’s leader, the 20-something Kim Jong-un, who inherited the leadership from
his father, Kim Jong-il, who died last December.
"It
will be a paramount diplomatic achievement if Yudhoyono and Marty can lure
North Korea to end its nuclear programme, advocate democracy and forge
reunification with its neighbour South Korea,” Hikmahanto said.
Marty,
however, refused say if Yudhoyono would use the planned meeting to ease tensions
in the Korean peninsula, such as by pushing for an end to its nuclear
programme.
In
2006, Yudhoyono cancelled a planned visit to Pyongyang, which many believed was
due to North Korea’s decision to launch a Taepodong-2 long-range missile.
Although
expressing concern over Friday’s failed rocket launch and calling for all
parties to exercise restraint, Marty said that Indonesia has maintained a good
relationship with North Korea.
Indonesia
has adopted what it calls a “free-and-active” foreign policy, which allows it
to be consistent in counting both North and South Korea as friends.
Indonesia
is among less than 20 countries that have embassies in Pyongyang.
Kim’s
planned visit would provide another boost for Yudhoyono’s diplomatic clout amid
the country’s strong economic growth.
The
president has had at least nine bilateral meetings so far this year.
Last
week, he met visiting British Prime Minister David Cameron and Kazakh President
Nursultan Nazarbayev. In two separate occasions last month, Yudhoyono met
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
at the Bogor Presidential Palace in West Java.
Yudhoyono
also met China’s President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing in
March, on his way to Seoul to attend the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit, and had
a meeting with South Korean counterpart Lee Myung-bak.
On the
sidelines of the summit, Yudhoyono also had meetings with the leaders of
Pakistan, Ukraine, Norway and Denmark.
The
president is scheduled to meet with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key on
Tuesday. A source at the Palace also said German Chancellor Angela Merkel was
also expected to come to Jakarta in the middle of the year.
"These
bilateral talks have proven that Indonesia’s profile in the global arena is
expanding and that many leaders have more confidence in Indonesia’s role as a
prominent mediator in many global issues,” Hikmahanto said.
Bagus
BT Saragih
The
Jakarta Post
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