Aquino gets Asean backing vs North Korea’s planned rocket launch

PHNOM PENH—On the eve of a two-day summit, President Benigno Aquino III got his wish for his Association of Southeast Asian Nations partners to support his call on North Korea to stop its planned rocket launch whose debris could possibly fall in the Philippines and other member countries.

It is expected that Asean will make a united call at the conclusion of the 20th Asean summit on Wednesday urging North Korea to drop its plans to launch a rocket in mid-April, Edwin Lacierda, Mr. Aquino’s spokesperson told reporters on Monday.

Mr. Aquino was supposed to express “grave concerns” over the North Korean move during the Asean leaders’ summit retreat to be held Wednesday.

But at Monday’s Asean foreign ministers’ meeting, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario raised the Philippine position on the rocket launch, according to Lacierda.

“Other foreign ministers echoed the same sentiments. This is why the chairman (Cambodia) assured the body that Asean will have a common position dissuading the launch which will be included in the chairman statement,” Lacierda quoted Del Rosario as telling him.

“We appreciate the common position shared by the Asean community on the Philippine stance on North Korea,” Lacierda said in a text message to reporters here.

The good news came ahead of Mr. Aquino’s expected arrival Monday night here from Manila.

Before he left for Cambodia, the President told reporters in Manila that he intended to bring up the North Korean problem at the summit. “A lot of them and also the dialogue partners of Asean are affected by this missile launch,” he said.

The President said the country had to prepare for the areas where debris would likely fall.

“The problem is, our experts cannot predict where the debris will fall because they are not sure of the guidance of this rocket,” he said.

“So maybe they want to go to another direction. But this guidance system is not that good, it may go to another direction. We need to take care of a lot of areas and this would not have to happen if this kind of missile test is done,” Mr. Aquino said.