South Korea's Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se will depart for Malaysia today... to attend a series of ASEAN meetings.<br />And there's extra attention this year as the top diplomats of all members from the so-called six-party nuclear talks, including North Korea's foreign minister, will be there.<br />Our Han Da-eun has the details. <br />The annual foreign ministers' meetings led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, will kick off in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.<br />A series of talks will be held over the course of two days.<br />That includes Post Ministerial Conferences, the ASEAN+3 Foreign Ministers' Meetings and the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers' Meeting.<br />But the ASEAN Regional Forum is garnering the most attention... as all members of the six-party nuclear talks will gather to discuss regional security along with 21 other partner nations.<br />The six-party talks, designed to denuclearize North Korea, have been stalled since 2008.<br />The officials representing the six-party nations are Seoul's Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, and the foreign ministers of China, Japan, Russia and North Korea.<br />Watchers are hoping some progress can be made on the North Korean nuclear issue.<br />The ASEAN Regional Forum is the only regional security forum in which North Korea takes part. <br />South Korea's foreign ministry says Minister Yun will once again urge North Korea to engage in denuclearization talks and express Seoul's will to resume inter-Korean dialogue.<br />During the ASEAN+3 meeting, ten ASEAN member nations plus South Korea, China, Japan will gather to cover a wide range of topics from climate change to infectious diseases.<br />Minister Yun will also attend the Korea-Mekong Foreign Ministers' Meeting,.. which will focus on ways to boost cooperation between Korea and five nations located in the Mekong region in Southeast Asia.<br />Those countries are Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.<br />Han Da-eun, Arirang News.
