Meeting Report
Overview
The seventeenth NEACD meeting took place in April 2006 in Tokyo.
In partnership with the Japan Center for International Cooperation, this
meeting
was the largest and most ambitious of the NEACD sessions and was the catalyst
for an intensive round of sideline meetings by senior diplomats from many of
the countries who participate in the official Six-Party Talks.
Nature of Participation
The United States, Republic of
Korea, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea sent their chief
representatives to the Six-Party Talks to participate directly in the NEACD
meeting. The DPRK dispatched its
largest and most senior group of participants ever. The delegation was headed
by Kim Kye Gwan, a Vice Foreign Minister. There were another eight participants,
including Ambassador Han Song-Ryol, Deputy Permanent Representative of the
DPRK Mission to the United Nations in New York, and Mr. Jong Thae Yang, Deputy
Director General of the Americas Department in the DPRK Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. Representing the United States was Christopher Hill, U.S. Assistant
Secretary of State, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs and representing
the Republic of
Korea
was Chun Young Woo, Deputy Foreign Minister.
Key Issues Discussed
The NEACD event was divided into three distinct phases, each of which addressed
important policy issues that are anticipated to be on the agenda of the Six-Party
Talks and that were proposed by member countries:
- A special one-day workshop on the "Economic and Energy Development
on the DPRK in the Framework of the Korean Peninsula Nuclear Issue" sponsored
by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. A diverse group of economic experts,
including representatives from World Bank and International Monetary Fund,
discussed economic
issues for the first time with North Korean representatives.
- A session on nuclear verification during the main NEACD plenary
meeting. Presentations were given by specialists
from the Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Laboratory, the U.S. State Department’s
Bureau of Verification, Compliance, and Implementation, the Chinese Academy
of Social Sciences, and the Republic of
Korea’s Institute on Foreign Affairs and National Security.
- A session devoted to examining the possible
deconflicting of conventional forces on the Korean Peninsula at the Defense
Information Sharing workshop that took place after the main NEACD meeting.
Presentations were given by
specialists from the Rand Corporation (U.S.) and the Republic of Korea
Institute on National Unification (ROK).
Key Outcomes
The economic workshop has resulted in the establishment of a new Track II
dialogue to encourage North Korea’s economic engagement and reforms with
the outside world, which has received the approval of the North Korean government.
Susan Shirk, the convener of NEACD, will lead a small group of specialists
to Pyongyang in September 2006 at the invitation of the North Korean government
to discuss this new dialogue and meet with economic specialists and ensure
their participation.
Dr. Shirk discussed this new economic dialogue track idea with senior
U.S. government and international financial institution officials in May 2006,
who all strongly supported this mechanism and pointed out its importance in
helping
to formulate a more detailed understanding of the opaque North Korean economy
and reinforce North Korea’s economic motivations to denuclearize.
Another important outcome of the NEACD meeting were detailed exchanges of
ideas between Track I representatives and IGCC representatives as to how NEACD
could further provide direct support to the official Six-Party Talk process.
One important idea was for the convening of special NEACD working groups that
would examine issues and provide proposals and assessments that would help
officials in the Six Party Talks in their deliberations.
Atmosphere of the Meeting
There was plenty of lively discussion and debate among all the participants
during these meetings. Most of the North Koreans actively joined in the discussions,
asking questions of others as well as explaining their own country’s
perspective. While the style was open and engaging, the substance of the North
Korean remarks adhered strictly to official positions.
Outside of the official sessions, there was plenty of socializing among participants
over meals and coffee-breaks. The North Koreans spent plenty of time interacting
with their counterparts from the other five countries, especially the South
Koreans. Many participants from Japan, the United States, and the Republic
of Korea remarked that this was one of the first opportunities that they had
to
be able
to get
to interact with senior North Korean participants in both an informal and formal
setting.
The presence of senior North Korean, U.S., and other representatives led to
extensive international press coverage of the NEACD meeting. More than 100
media organizations
were registered to cover the NEACD meeting. While details of discussions during
the NEACD sessions were kept confidential, a press briefing was given by Dr.
Shirk following the end of the meeting. Link
to op-ed in San Diego Union-Tribune.
Background
Meeting annually, NEACD provides a "track II," or
unofficial, forum where foreign and defense ministry policy-level officials,
military
officers,
and academics from China, Russia, North and South Korea, Japan, and the United
States are able to meet and frankly discuss regional security issues. Founded
in 1993,
the forum is considered the leading track II forum in Northeast Asia.
At present there is no official "track I" multilateral process in
Northeast Asia. The next NEACD and the Defense Information Sharing
Study Project will convene in April 2007.
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