N.Korea wants denuclearization: Philippines

BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea is committed to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and to following a February deal to end its nuclear program, the Philippine foreign minister said on Thursday after returning from Pyongyang.

But the North expects action to be met with action, Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo told Reuters in an interview.

"Both President Kim and Foreign Minister Pak repeatedly stated to me that their overriding objective is to denuclearize the Korean peninsula," Romulo said, referring to North Korea's number two leader, Kim Yong-nam, who is president of the North Korean parliament, and Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun.

The two men "also stated to me their unshakable will to implement the action agreement of February 13, 2007. This is very encouraging to me", the minister said, speaking at Beijing airport.

Under the February agreement, North Korea will shut its Yongbyon nuclear reactor in exchange for aid.

The deal was hammered out in Beijing at six-party talks attended by host China, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia.

"What was stressed to me by the foreign minister and the president of the DPRK is that the key to the implementation of the February 13 agreement is confidence amongst each other, and they stressed the principle of action-for-action," Romulo said.

"They call it in Korean 'haengdong-for-haengdong'," he added.

North Korea's formal name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"If all of them fulfill their part in the action agreement ... it will eventually lead to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," said Romulo, who was in North Korea for three days.

He added that he had invited Pak to attend August's annual ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the only security mechanism in the Asia-Pacific region, being held this year in Manila.

Pak -- named foreign minister in May -- had agreed in principle to come, Romulo said.

During a visit to Tokyo late last month, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo offered to host informal six-party talks on North Korea on the sidelines of the ARF meetings because all six states involved in the dialogue would be present.

Established in 1994, the ARF has 26 members, including the 10 ASEAN member-states and nuclear states such as the United States, Russia, China, India and Pakistan. Sri Lanka will become the 27th member in the Manila meeting.

Other members include Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Japan, Mongolia, North and South Korea, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, New Zealand and the European Union.