South Korean president arrives in Jakarta

Dec 3, 2006, 12:12 GMT

Jakarta - South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun arrived in Jakarta on Sunday afternoon for a three-day visit on the first leg of a tour that is expected to bring him to Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines.

Roh was due to stay in Indonesia until Tuesday and was scheduled to meet with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Monday, where a number of issues would be discussed, a government official said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Desra Percaya had said that the North Korean nuclear crisis was likely to dominate the talks between Roh and Yudhoyono, in addition to other issues, including tourism, forestation projects and the fight against corruption.

Indonesia and North Korea have historical ties. Indonesia's first president, Sukarno, was a close friend of Kim Jong Il's late father, Kim Il Sung.

Sukarno's daughter, Megawati Sukarnoputri, was Indonesia's president between 2001 and 2004 and has kept up a friendship with Kim Jong Il.

Percaya also said the two leaders would discuss oil and gas cooperation, although there were no plans to sign any specific deals.

'The cooperation will touch on issues like technology transfer and knowledge of safety procedures,' Percaya told a press conference on Friday.

Indonesia is moving ahead with plans for the construction of the country's first nuclear power plant, to be located near Gunung (Mount) Muria in densely populated and earthquake-prone Central Java, with a capacity of 4,000 megawatts by 2025.

Construction of the plant is scheduled to start in 2010.

After Jakarta, Roh plans to travel to Australia to hold talks with Prime Minister John Howard, and to New Zealand, where he plans to meet Prime Minister Helen Clark.

Roh is expected to travel to the Philippines on the last stretch of his 11-day trip to attend the annual 'ASEAN-plus-3'' summit that involve the 10 Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries plus South Korea, China and Japan.