US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the North Korean foreign minister will both attend an Asian forum this week amid tensions over Pyongyang's missile tests, officials confirmed Monday.
Rice and North Korea's Paek Nam-Sun are due at the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Kuala Lumpur, raising hopes for a sideline meeting between the six nations involved in stalled disarmament talks.
"He (Paek) will be arriving here on the 27th, and has not confirmed the duration of his stay. His date of departure is not confirmed," a North Korean embassy official in Kuala Lumpur told AFP.
"He may stay for two to three days," he added.
The confirmation by the reclusive North Korean regime came after South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon said that Paek had been invited to six-nation talks although there was no guarantee he would show up.
Rice's participation in the ARF, meanwhile, had been in doubt because of her trip to Israel Monday to call for an urgent ceasefire in Middle East. She skipped the forum last year, causing consternation in the region.
"We expect the secretary of state to be here. They (the United States) have confirmed she is coming," Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told reporters when asked if Rice would attend.
The presence of both Rice and Paek would at least mean that the two key players in the six-nation talks over North Korea's nuclear ambitions will be at the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) gathering.
The talks ground to a halt in November over Pyongyang's objections to US financial sanctions.
Then the UN Security Council unanimously condemned North Korea this month for test-firing seven missiles. Pyongyang rejected the UN resolution and threatened to bolster its defences in reply.
China, the host of the six-party talks that began in August 2003, has indicated it opposed holding discussions without Pyongyang. The talks also involve Japan, South Korea and Russia.
