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By Ronda Hauben, Freelance Journalist
　　　　
Government officials from the United States and North Korea held talks from July 28 to 29 in New York City. But these were not the only talks in which Americans and North Koreas were involved.
The National Committee on American Foreign Policy (NCAFP) held a press conference to describe Aug. 1 talks between the United States and North Korea. Professor George Schwab, president of NCAFP opened the briefing. The NCAFP had invited the North Korean delegation to New York and had hosted it at a day-long meeting on Monday, August 1.
In contrast to the formal government-to-government meetings that took place on Thursday and Friday of the previous week, the meeting hosted by the NCAFP was what is known as a Track 2 meeting.
“Track 2 meetings encourage the parties to explore the issues and understand each other’s views in an informal setting,” said Schwab
Though the North Korean participants are government officials, they participated in an unofficial capacity. Henry Kissinger, co-chairman of the NCAFP, was a participant in these talks, as he had been in all the previous NCAFP Track 2 meetings with the North Koreans, according to Schwab. Among those participating on the U.S. side of the talks, were former government officials, officers of the Korea Society, academics with a deep knowledge of Korean affairs, and Congressional staff.
Along with Schwab, at the press conference were Professor Donald Zagoria, Senior Vice President of the NCAFP, Mark Minton and Evans Revere of the Korea Society, and Stephen Del Rosso of the Carnegie Corporation Track 2 program on North Korea.
Talking about the substance of the Track 2 meeting, Schwab listed a number of issues that often appear in talks between the United States and North Korea. These included North Korea’s nuclear program and missile program, a peace agreement between US and North Korea, missing in action, family unifications, and other issues that would need to be solved to reach the ultimate goal of peace in Northeast Asia.
The focus of the talks, however, as Schwab explained, were those issues which dealt with security matters.
One question asked by the press was, “Why, at this time, did the U.S. government invite the North Korean negotiators to the U.S.?”
Zagoria responded that this was the critical question. He described how he had spent some time talking with Evans Revere in order to be able to answer this question.
After two years of non-contact between the United States and North Korea in negotiations, it was clear that non-contact was dangerous, Zagoria explained. On the U.S. side, he acknowledged that he had not been satisfied with the U.S. policy known as “strategic patience”, which diminished chances for U.S.-North Korea talks. The two years of no talks between the United States and North Korea had resulted in North Korean missile and nuclear developments and an especially dangerous situation on the Korean Peninsula in 2010. Zagoria referred to an analysis by Joel Wit of the problems that had grown up from the lack of contact. Also he noted that China had played a constructive role encouraging the talks.
Mark Minton was asked about his proposal to set up liaison offices for U.S.-North Korea relations in Washington DC and in Pyongyang, a proposal he had made at the Jeju Peace Forum in June. He responded that this proposal had been previously proposed and so was in the negotiating record. Such liaison offices would facilitate contact. When there is a crisis he observed, it is difficult to even get in contact.
Evans Revere responded to a question about whether the U.S. participants in the Track 2 talks felt that work toward a peace treaty between North Korea and the U.S. could be considered a security issue. He said it was pretty hard to have discussions with North Korea without this coming up. This was one of the topics that would be worked on as part of the six-party talks if they were to resume.
Asked why the North Korean delegation was willing to take part in the NCAFP hosted talks, Zagoria responded that the North Koreans appreciated the opportunity to talk with a broad group of scholars and former government officials. He offered the example of how a long discussion between the two sides in June 2005 helped to set the basis for the September 2005 agreement concluded during the six-party talks.
The sentiment among the Americans at the NCAFP conference was succinctly summed up by Schwab when he said, “Not talking is not going to lead us to any good results.”
　
A version of this article originally appeared at http://taz.de/blogs/netizenblog
　　
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