JAKARTA. South Korea has asked Indonesia to help persuade North Korea to stop its nuclear program through a UN resolution mechanism.
On Sept. 10, the communist country conducted its fifth nuclear test, it produced a 5.3 Richter scale tremor around the test area. The country has reached an advanced state in the technology as it can now control the radius and strength of the explosion.
"We believe Indonesia as a friend of South Korea will play a big role in resolving North Korean nuclear issues," Korean Ambassador to Indonesia Taiyoung Cho said at Korean Cultural Center in Jakarta on Wednesday.
However, according to former foreign minister Dino Patti Djalal, Indonesia cannot do much in the way of direct intervention with North Korea because of its distance from the peninsula, however Indonesia can play a part in conveying aspirations from Southeast Asia to the UN.
"What the international community can do is to revive again the six party talks," Dino said.
The six party talks involving North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Russia, China and the US went on for five rounds from 2003 to 2007. However in 2009 they broke up as North Korea resumed nuclear tests. (Anton Hermansyah)
