Lee to press for Cheonan support at G-20 Summit

JoongAng Daily ^ | 6/26/2010 | Jung Ha-won

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan are expected to ratchet up diplomatic efforts to garner international support for a UN reprimand of North Korea during this weekend’s G-20 Summit in Toronto.

Seoul has asked the UN Security Council to officially condemn Pyongyang for the fatal March 26 attack on South Korean warship Cheonan, an accusation Pyongyang has furiously denied. After two Koreas held dueling briefings to push their own versions of the story to member countries at the UN Security Council, negotiations came to a temporary halt this week as the ambassadors of the member countries flew to a security tour of Afghanistan.

Seoul’s new push began Wednesday when Yu called Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon to ask for Ottawa’s support when Seoul brings up the Cheonan incident at the G-8 Summit in Huntsville and the G-20 Summit, both in Canada this weekend.

“The Canadian Foreign Minister said he would do his best to bring more attention from the international community to the issue,” said one senior South Korean government official who asked for anonymity earlier this week.

Yu is also expected to meet with China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in a bid for his country’s much-sought support at the Security Council. China and Russia, both key and permanent members of the UN body, have not said whether they will support Seoul’s contention that North Korea sunk the warship with a torpedo attack.

Lee and Yu may have other informal meetings at the summit, which diplomats call “pull-asides,” with counterparts from Japan, Russia and other Security Council member countries, Seoul officials said.