European Experts on North Korea suggest “Europe as new base for inter-Korean exchanges led by Gyeonggi Province”

Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, 2021-Dec-20 — /EPR Network/ — North Korea experts in Europe pointed to their continent as a new base and window for maximizing the results of inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation led by Gyeonggi Province during the seventh Gyeonggi-do International Peace Forum held on December 10 via video conference.

The forum, hosted by Gyeonggi Province and the Sejong Institute under the theme of “Envisioning the Peace System on the Korean Peninsula in Europe,” consisted of two parts: the first on “Why is Europe’s experience in establishing the peace system important?” and the second on “Conversations with North Korea experts in Europe – How should we contact North Korea?”

Of particular note, the second part, moderated by Sejong Institute Chairman Moon Chung-in, attracted attention due to the participation of politicians and scholars from Germany and the United Kingdom who have been serving as bridges between North Korea and the international community for decades.

Panelists included former German security advisor Wolfgang Nowak, who is known for leading exchanges between North Korea and Germany (including arranging the visit of former German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel to North Korea), and former European Parliament member Glyn Ford, who contributed to the peace process on the Korean Peninsula by conveying the North’s position on participation in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics to the South Korean government.

Also participating in this discussion were Rüdiger Frank, a world-renowned North Korea expert who studied at Kim Il Sung University in Pyeongyang, North Korea, and currently serves as Head of the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Vienna in Austria, and Lee Eun-jeung, Director of the Graduate School of East Asian Studies at the Free University of Berlin (Freie Universität Berlin) and a leader of academic exchanges between Kim Il Sung University and the Free University of Berlin.

The panelists lauded, in particular, the various efforts of Gyeonggi Province in terms of inter-Korean exchanges at the local government level and emphasized the importance of Europe as a new base for contact with North Korea. They said that they would continue to communicate with North Korea using their continent as a base and help inter-Korean exchange and cooperation projects promoted by Gyeonggi Province in the future.

“North Korea maintains friendly relations with German political foundations, such as the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation,” said one panelist who requested anonymity, adding, “We will do everything we can to ensure that Gyeonggi Province can resume exchanges and cooperation with the North in tandem with these NGOs.”

Another panelist said, “We need to prepare for the time when the COVID-19 situation eases and North Korea lifts the border blockade,” stressing, “Gyeonggi Province regards Europe as a new base of contact with the North and is actively building cooperative relations with Europe. In the future, Gyeonggi Province will play a leading role in resuming inter-Korea exchanges and cooperation.”

Meanwhile, in the first part of the discussion, Sejong Institute Director Lee Sang-hyeon moderated the debate on “How to apply the experiences of establishing a peace system in Europe in the 1970s to the Korean Peninsula?”

Lee Do-hoon, former head of the Korean Peninsula Peace Negotiation Headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Shin Dong-ik, a former South Korean ambassador to Austria who served as a chief representative at the North Korean nuclear negotiations, gave realistic explanations of the possibilities and limitations of multilateral security cooperation on the Korean Peninsula based on their direct experiences at negotiations.

Hong Ki-joon, who has been researching the field of multilateral security cooperation for some time, and Kim Jeong-seop, who served as head of the Planning and Coordination Office at the Ministry of National Defense, highlighted the importance of multilateral security cooperation, citing examples such as World War I.

Noh Joo-hee, Head of the Gyeonggi International Peace Center, which co-hosted this event, said, “We will actively review the proposals of the European experts with regard to setting a new direction for Gyeonggi Province’s inter-Korean exchange and cooperation policy based on Europe and undertake concrete implementation.”