Seoul, July 23 -- Foreign Minister Cho Hyun on Thursday called on North Korea to respond to Seoul's offers for dialogue and join efforts to promote peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula at a regional security forum in Manila, the foreign ministry said.

Cho made the remarks during the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), a 27-member multilateral security forum attended by the 11 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states and major regional powers, including the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

The ARF is the only regional multilateral security forum in which both South and North Korea participate, but Pyongyang was absent from this year's session for the second consecutive year.

Cho said peace and stability on the Ko...