hankyoreh

the executive director of Hope Institute.

Paik Nak-chung, Park Won-soon, and other Korean civic movement leaders, are engaged in private diplomacy with the U.S. administration, Congress and private groups, and are calling for “active negotiations” from the Obama administration in regards to the North Korean nuclear issue and peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Paik, the honorary head of the South Korean delegation to the Committee for the Implementation of the June 15 Joint Declaration, Executive Director of Hope Institute Park Won-soon, former World Vision Chairman Oh Jae-shik and Korea Church Women United Director-General Lee Moon-sook have plans to visit Washington DC and New York on Sept. 12 to 18 at the invitation of Senator John Kerry, chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The four-person delegation plans to meet with high-ranking U.S. administration and Congressional officials to convey in writing the position of South Korean civil society on the North Korean nuclear issue and a Korean peace regime, namely, that only active negotiations can guarantee denuclearization and peace. Their core message is expected to be that the Obama administration should not be attached to a particular negotiation format and should be actively negotiating with North Korea. It is also expected that they will be urging the U.S. to begin concrete discussions on building a North Korean peace regime.

Lee Seung-hwan, who is director of the Southern delegation of the Committee for the Implementation of the June 15 Joint Declaration and is directing the administrative affairs of the trip, says the U.S. visit is aimed to convey directly to the U.S. government and Congress the views of South Korean civil society, which differ greatly from those of the Lee Myung-bak administration, and to demand active negotiations.

The South Korean delegation will attend at the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 14 a forum on Korean peace hosted by Sen. John Kerry. At the forum, they will be speaking with Congressional officials including those serving on the House Subcommittee on Asia Pacific, Global Environment Chairman Eni F.H. Faleomavaega and Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffer Frank Jannuzi. On Sept. 15, the plan to meet with high-ranking White House figures such as Special Advisor for Nonproliferation and Arms Control Robert Einhorn. They are also pushing to meet with the U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell.

They are also scheduled to participate in a debate with former North Korea Policy Coordinator Wendy Sherman and former White House National Security Council Asian Affairs Director Victor Cha in a seminar on Korean peace hosted by the Brookings Institute on Sept. 15, and the next day are expected to present Korean civil society opinion under the title, “Building North Korea-U.S. Trust through Dialogue” at a forum in New York hosted by the Korea Society.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]