World Notes KAMPUCHEA

Never let it be said that Prince Norodom Sihanouk is reluctant to change his $ mind. In January he suddenly resigned as leader of a guerrilla coalition that is battling Kampuchea's Vietnamese-backed government; the next month he just as abruptly resumed his post. After Viet Nam stepped up its troop withdrawal from Kampuchea, ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed to be host to peace talks in Djakarta next week between the warring sides. But then Sihanouk, who ruled Kampuchea (then called Cambodia) until 1970, quit his job again.

Sihanouk claimed that the Khmer Rouge, the strongest but least palatable of his coalition partners, was trying to "liquidate" the prince's rebel faction. Predicting that Sihanouk would ultimately attend the peace talks, Foreign Minister Siddhi Savetsila of Thailand saw his resignation as a way to gain leverage in shaping his country's future.