KORUS HOUSE RECENT NEWS

Jun 03, 2008

Assessing the Six Party Talks in NE Asia: Some Relationships Flourish, Others Suffer

The various assessments by Japan, China, the United States, and the Republic of Korea of the Six Party Talks framework—and thus for the prospects of greater regional security in Northeast Asia as well—have become increasingly divergent, says Dr. Sheila Smith, senior fellow and director of the Council on Foreign Relation¡¯s project on regional architecture. The ongoing CFR ¡°conversation¡± has brought together non-government policy experts from each country to discuss the prospects of regional security, and assess the impact of the Six Party Talks on future coordination. ¡°With our colleagues, we are looking for opportunities to continue the conversation and to feed into the policy thinking in Seoul, Tokyo, and obviously, Beijing,¡± Smith said, speaking at the KORUS House in Washington D.C. on May 22 Japan-US relations have suffered as a result through the experience of the Six Party Talks, especially in the last year, while China-US relations have strengthened, she said. Tokyo has become increasingly pessimistic and concerned over a lack of coordination with Washington regarding North Korea, but Beijing has remained optimistic, strengthening communication with Washington while also finding common ground on North Korea. By contrast, Smith says that Washington and Seoul generally consider themselves realists about the virtues of the Six Party Talks and regional security. In the conversations of CFR¡¯s project, Smith said there is a credible argument that South Korea has risen to a more pro-active position in the Six Party Talks, but that there are still concerns over policy coordination with Washington. ¡°Our desire in this project is not necessarily to endorse the creation of a new security framework, rather what we¡¯re hoping to do is explore with our colleagues in the region the various perspectives on this idea of a regional architecture—what might it look like, what currently exists, what might be the agenda, and what might be the impact of an active effort to create a new architecture.¡± Smith acknowledged that the explicit goal of the Six Party Talks—verifiably denuclearizing North Korea—could remain unmet for decades, but that the solution has to be a multilateral one. ¡°There¡¯s a broad feeling in the American foreign policy community—whatever political party you sympathize with—that America has got to get its attention back to Asia.¡± ARTICLE TO BE EXPANDED By Adam Wojciechowicz