N. Korea, Iran draw G-8 leaders’ rebukes

British Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama step off the Marine One helicopter Saturday in Toronto.
British Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama step off the Marine One helicopter Saturday in Toronto.

— Top world leaders briefly put aside deep economic differences Saturday and condemned North Korea for its purported role in the sinking of a South Korean warship, set a five-year exit timeline for Afghanistan and said the standoff in Gaza was “not sustainable and must be changed.”

In a joint statement, the leading eight industrial democracies also criticized Iran and North Korea for continuing their nuclear march and called on both to heed United Nations resolutions.

The statement about the March sinking of the South Korean Cheonan warship was not as strongly worded as the United States and some other countries had hoped. Russia was cited as a holdout against tougher language.

After spending Friday debating the best response to the lingering global financial crisis, the G-8 leaders - representing the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia - focused Saturday on foreign policy, where it appeared easier to find common ground.

The Group of Eight nations concluded the group’s two-day meeting at a lakeside resort about 140 miles north of Toronto with a joint statement. Leaders then immediately returned to Toronto to continue their talks in the Group of 20, a broader meeting which includes countries with fast-growing economies such as China, India and Brazil.

World leaders found themselves divided on how best to keep the world economy growing after the worst recession since the 1930s. They split between calls, mainly from the U.S., for more government stimulus to keep the world from slipping back into recession, and appeals from European countries and Japan for spending cuts and even tax increases to avoid Greecelike near defaults.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said President Barack Obama “clearly talked about the risks of debt and deficit” in the U.S.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said world leaders must work together to make sure the global recovery stays on track. Although the world economy has recovered somewhat, many challenges remain, Geithner said.

“This economic crisis exposed and exacerbated vulnerabilities already embedded in integrated global economies,” the group said in a statement issued after the meeting. Still, “progress is being made, through the work of the G-20, towards the sustainable recovery of our global economic and financial system.”

The back-to-back summits came amid what Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the host, called an “enormous crisis facing us all,serious threats to the stability, economic prosperity of every country.”

Leaders were also holding one-on-one sessions on the sidelines of the two summits. Obama met separately Saturday with Chinese President Hu Jintao, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Obama invited Hu to Washington for a formal state visit. Hu accepted, and White House officials said the two nations will work out a date. It would be the third state dinner of Obama’s presidency, after ones for India and Mexico.

Obama discussed the torpedoing of the South Korean warship with Lee during their meeting. Afterward, Obama said North Korea must be “held to account” and “we stand foursquare behind” Lee. The South Korean appealed for a “strongly worded” resolution out of the U.N. Security Council.

In their closing statement, the G-8 leaders cited an independent report that found that the South Korean ship had been sunk by a North Korean torpedo.

The leaders said: “We condemn in this context the attack which led to the sinking of the Cheonan.” But the statement did not explicitly blame North Korea for the attack.

Japanese officials said Russia was the only G-8 member to resist tougher language condemning North Korea more directly.

An official in the Russian delegation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the leaders were meeting, said that Russia still did not consider the results of the investigation to be final and because of this, felt that condemning Pyongyang further could lead to negative consequences.

The G-8’s communique criticized Iran’s nuclear program and urged greater adherence to human rights.

“We are profoundly concerned by Iran’s continued lack of transparency regarding its nuclear activities and its stated intention to continue and expand enriching uranium,” the statement said.

The G-8 also praised “ongoing efforts ... to persuade Iran’s leaders to engage in a transparent dialogue about its nuclear activities” by China, France, Germany, Russia, Britain, the U.S. and European Union officials.

PROTESTS TURN FIERY

Black-clad demonstrators broke off from a crowd peacefully protesting the global economic summit in Toronto on Saturday, torching police cruisers and smashing windows with baseball bats and hammers. Police arrested more than 100 people.

Police with shields and clubs pushed back the rogue protesters who tried to head south toward the security fence surrounding the perimeter of the G-20 summit site. Some demonstrators hurled bottles at police.

“We have never seen that level of wanton criminality and vandalism and destruction on our streets,” Toronto police chief Bill Blair said.

“This isn’t our Toronto, and my response is anger,” Toronto Mayor David Miller told CP24 television.

The roving band of protesters in black balaclavas shattered shop windows for blocks, including at police headquarters, then shed some of their black clothes, revealing other garments, and continued to rampage through downtown Toronto.

Protesters torched at least three police cruisers in different parts of the city, including one in the heart of the city’s financial district. One protester jumped on the roof of one before dropping a Molotov cocktail into the smashed windshield.

Blair said the goal of the militant protesters was to draw police away from the security perimeter of the summit so fellow protesters could attempt to disrupt the meeting.

Police arrested 130 people Saturday, but Blair said many suspects remain at large.

Blair said officers were struck by rocks and bottles and were assaulted, but nonewas injured badly enough to stop working.

A stream of police cars headed to Toronto to reinforce security there after the smaller G-8 summit ended in Huntsville, Ontario, about 140 miles away.

Security was being provided by an estimated 19,000 law enforcement officers drawn from all regions of Canada, and security costs are estimated at more than $900 million.

The vandalism occurred just blocks from where Obama and other world leaders were meeting and staying.

“These images are truly shocking to Canadians,” Canadian Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said in a statement. “We are taking all measures necessary to ensure Canadians, delegates, media andinternational visitors remain safe.”

Saturday’s protest march, sponsored by labor unions and dubbed “family friendly,” was the largest demonstration planned during the weekend summits. Its organizers had hoped to draw 10,000, but only about half that number turned out on what was a rainy day.

The vandalism capped six days of nonviolent protests to coincide with the G-20 and G-8 summits.

FREE-TRADE TALKS

Obama said Saturday that his administration will launch talks with South Korea aimed at resolving remaining issues blocking the completion of a South Korean free-trade agreement stalled since 2007. Obama said his goal wouldbe to clear up the remaining issues before he visits South Korea in November and to submit the agreement to Congress for approval within a “few months” after his visit.

“It is the right thing to do for our country. It is the right thing to do for Korea,” Obama said with Lee at his side.

Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs said the two major sticking points for the administration included barriers South Korea has erected to the sale of U.S. autos and beef in the nation.

MIDDLE EAST, ECONOMY

In their final statement, the G-8 countries also called Israel’s current restrictions on the flow of goods to Gaza “not sustainable and must be changed.”

“We welcome the decision of the Israeli Cabinet’s announcement of a new policy toward Gaza as a positive development,” the communique said.

And the leaders endorsed a five-year exit strategy for foreign troops from Afghanistan, a timetable first proposed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai last year. In addition, Obama and Cameron said the war must show progress this year.

“This period that we are in is going to be critical,” Obama said after he met with the British leader separately. Added Cameron: “Making progress this year, putting everything we have into getting it right this year is vitally important.”

It was Obama’s first private meeting with Cameron since the conservative took power last month with a coalition government.

Economic issues were expected to be more prominent at the larger G-20 meeting, which started Saturday evening with a dinner.

“We can’t afford some sort of cataclysmic event” like the 2008 collapse of investment banking giant Lehman Brothers, Canada’s Harper said.

“We remain very engaged and very watchful of those situations,” he said.

The G-8 leaders didn’t mention China’s currency, often a subject of concern. China on Saturday reiterated its commitment to allow further flexibility in the currency in a statement distributed to reporters.

After Obama met with Hu, the U.S. president and the Chinese leader talked of improving relations between their countries. “Real progress has been made in this relationship,” Hu said through a translator.

Obama told Hu that the U.S. welcomed China’s move on its currency and stressed the need for a “level playing field” on trade issues, administration officials said.

Obama told Hu the decision was an important step in rebalancing the global economy and that “implementation of it will be very important,” Jeff Bader, director of Asian affairs on Obama’s National Security Council, said in a briefing after the two leaders met.

Information for this article was contributed by Jane Wardell, Tom Raum, Emma Vandore, Jeannine Aversa, Rob Gillies, Foster Klug, Mark Smith, Martin Crutsinger, Ian Harrison, Charmaine Noronha and David Nowak of The Associated Press; and by Joe Schneider, Sean B. Pasternak, Doug Alexander, David Suski, Kristin Jensen, Gonzalo Vina, Rebecca Christie, Sandrine Rastello, Theophilos Argitis, Sara Eisen, John Brinsley, Lyubov Pronina, Julianna Goldman, Irene Shen, Fabiola Moura, Tony Czuczka, Doug Alexander, Julianna Goldman and Hans Nichols of Bloomberg News.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 06/27/2010

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