Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk said on Thursday that he would keep silence on abdication.

"I will no longer talk or write about my abdication after today's letter," the king said in a khmer letter to the country on Thursday. But he said, "I have never turned a blind eye to the people's plight."

The letter of the 82-year-old monarch was apparently response to Prime Minister's remarks on Wednesday that the king's abdication might cause chaos in the country and the new governmentwas too busy on poor farmers in the country to think about king's abdication issue.

King Sihanouk has said to give up the throne on several occasions in recent years. Over the past month, he raised the issue with greater frequency. On Monday, the king repeated that hewill abdicate upon the approval of Supreme Patriarch Tep Vong, theleader of the Mahanikaya Buddhist sect.

King Norodom Sihanouk and Queen Norodom Monineath arrived in Beijing Tuesday from Pyongyang, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) where he stayed for nearly four months.

Source: Xinhua