The ASEAN Regional Forum's chairman has called for a swift resolution to the shooting death of a South Korean tourist at the Mount Geumgang resort.

Singapore, which chaired the regional gathering, said in a statement Thursday that the ministers who attended the international conference showed genuine interest in the tourist shooting incident and expressed hope for a quick resolution to the issue.

The chairman’s statement also says the ministers noted the outcome of last year’s South-North summit and the October fourth inter-Korean joint declaration. The statement added that the ministers strongly support the continuous development in inter-Korean ties based on the October accord.

A Foreign Ministry official said Seoul exerted its best effort to include calls for resolving the tourist shooting in the regional forum’s joint statement, while the North focused more on the implementation of the October fourth declaration.

The official said Singapore apparently tried to have the joint statement reflect the positions of both Koreas in a balanced way.