Chun, Yung-woo, the
former ambassador of Republic of Korea gives a keynote speech,
Focus on the North
Korean nuclear issue and its role of China
With a full support from
the consulate general, University of Washington (UW) Korean Studies Center
hosted the second ‘Korean Peninsula Forum’ on November 12th. On the
west coast of the United States, the success of this event is assessed as a
gateway for academic events on the Korean Peninsula to be held regularly.
This forum, held at the UW
Kane Hall, had around 200 attendees including Korean and Southeast Asian
studies scholars, students, and Korean community leaders in Seattle.
Christopher Robert Hill, former United States
ambassador to the Republic of Korea gave a keynote speech at the last year’s
first Korean Peninsula Forum. This year’s forum had Chun, Yung-woo, former
second vice foreign minister (2009-2010), a national security advisor to
President Lee Myung back (2010-2013), and a current chairman of the Korean
Peninsula Future Forum (KPFF), as a keynote speaker.
Donald Hellman (UW
professor of Jackson School of International Studies and the department of
Political Science) moderated the discussion as David Bachman (Henry M. Jackson
Professor of International Studies—Chinese Domestic and Foreign policy), Clark
Sorensen (Chair of Korea Program), Kenneth Pyle (professor of Japanese Studies—Historic
impacts on international relations), and Yong-Chool Ha (Korean Social Science) came
out as a panel.
Chun was also a special
representative for Korean peninsula Peace and Security Affairs and head of the
Republic of Korea delegation to the Six-Party Talks. He is an expert of North
Korea and North Korean nuclear issues.
Chun began his keynote
speech with a joke—“As soon as I resigned from the representative position of
Republic of Korea, the North Korean nuclear issues at the Six-Party Talks was
terminated.” He stated that as of now, North Korea would not give up on nuclear
weapons.
According to Chun, there is
no reason for North Korea to give up on nuclear weapons under Kim Jong-Un’s
regime. Neither there are enough disadvantages for North Korea for their
exercise on nuclear issues, nor the pressure they may gain from the United
States or United Nations for possessing nuclear weapons is unbearable. Unless
there are more advantages for North Korea to give up on nuclear weapons, they
would not easily give up.
He added that “the only
and the powerful solution for North Korea to give up on nuclear weapons is military
action. However, it is challenging to take a military action against North
Korea.”
Furthermore, the
expectations of China’s role on North Korea nuclear issues is low. Chun
claimed, “Though China states that ‘it would be best for North Korea to go
through denuclearization, for we oppose on North Korea’s nuclear armaments,’ there
is no effort made by China to denuclearize North Korea.” He also claimed that “there
is no realistic tactics for China to give pressure on North Korea.”
During panel discussion,
Professor Ha stated “policies on North Korea or North Korean nuclear issues are
gone since 2009.” He added that “we cannot let North Korea to be alienated and
therefore, a conference must be resumed, though I believe, the United States is
causing this quite challenging to happen.”
Korean consul general Duk-Ho
Moon valued highly of this forum, stating that “not only the keynote speech was
great, but this became a successful event as a result of preparations of high-quality
questions and discussion.” He also commented that now Korean Peninsula forum provided
a gateway for regularized academic event.
Many leaders in the Korean
community including Ik-hwan Lee, Hyun-ki Lee, Kwang-jae Shin, Jae-wook Kim,
Seung-Ju Cho, Seung-Ju Hong, Soon-ah Kim, Bu-won Yoon, and Ki-won Yu also
attended the forum to support active discussions on the ‘Korean Peninsula
issues,’ centered by the UW Korean Studies Center.
