Bangkok - North Korea will not send its foreign minister to attend ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) - Asia's main security gathering - hosted by Thailand next week, Thai Foreign Ministry officials confirmed Wednesday.

"All ARF participants will attend the meeting except from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which will be represented by a high-level official," Vitavas Srivihok, director-general of ASEAN Affairs at the Thai Foreign Ministry, said.

Pyongyang's decision to only send its Ambassador-at-large Pak Ui-Chun to July 23 forum on Thailand's Phuket Island, has derailed plans to use it for sideline six-party talks on the Korean peninsula issue.

ARF will draw foreign ministers from the 10 members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and their main diplomatic partners: China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, US, Canada, Russia and the EU.

North Korea is also a partner of the forum, giving rise to hopes that the annual security talks might offer an appropriate venue for sideline talks on Pyongyang's ongoing belligerency over its nuclear arms program. The six-party talks include China, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Russia and the US.

"Things could change," Vitavas said. "We will keep in close touch with the DPRK, and there is still a week."

The highlight of the forum is expected to be the US accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in South-east Asia, to be signed July 22 by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Phuket.

The US has been reluctant to sign the document, a code of conduct in the region, for fear that it would limit its unilateral voice in dealing with issues as human rights abuses and threats to democracy.

US President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State Clinton have signalled that they will alter some of the polices followed by the previous administration under former President George W Bush.

The decision to sign the treaty was deemed an indication of a fundamental change in US diplomacy towards Asia.

"I think President Obama wants to give more importance to Asia, and to ASEAN in particular," Vitavas said.

Clinton will travel first to India and then on to Thailand to attend the forum in Phuket, 600 kilometers south of Bangkok.

Phuket beach resort has been chosen as a venue for the high-profile meeting because the Thai government is confident that it can assure tight security for the gathering there.

An estimated 10,000 army personnel have been assigned to prevent any protests and acts of violence on the island, which has been put under martial law between July
10-24, to prevent a repeat of an April fiasco in Pattaya, another Thai beach resort.

Thailand had to abruptly cancel an ASEAN Summit in Pattaya on April 11-12 after anti-government protestors stormed the meeting's venue, raising security concerns for the attending leaders from South-East Asia, China, Japan and South Korea.

Thailand has taken extraordinary measures to ensure that no disruption occurs in Phuket Island, a stronghold for the Democrat Party that leads the current coalition government.

"We should not underestimate anything," Vitavas said.