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Insights from the International Symposium on South Korea’s Audacious Initiative

By participating in the conference on the “Audacious Initiative for Denuclearized, Peaceful and Prosperous Korean Peninsula”, the HSF was introduced to the opportunities and challenges of president Yoon’s North Korea strategy.

In the first week of July, four interns of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, Maël Testud-Couedic, Marcel Thiel, Yuni Shin and Sophia Grill had the great opportunity to participate in the international symposium on the “Audacious Initiative for Denuclearized, Peaceful and Prosperous Korean Peninsula” which was co-hosted by the Ministry of Unification, the Export-Import Bank of Korea as well as Seoul National University.

The morning session was opened by a speech of Yung-ho Kim, South Korea’s minister of unification, in which he pointed out that improving human rights in North Korea is just as important as denuclearization efforts. His speech was followed by a presentation from Gerard Roland, professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who highlighted the importance of cooperation with China in order to achieve denuclearization in North Korea. Afterwards, the South Korean policy regarding North Korean denuclearization was under discussion in the format of an expert round table, moderated by Byeong-yeon Kim. The participants included Seok Lee, Jin-Ah Kim, Scott Snyder, Junya Nishino as well as Justin Hastings.

In the afternoon, presentations were carried out by numerous speakers such as Ms. Na-Ra Lee, the Assistant FAO representative, Dr. Patrick Meehan, University of Warwick, and Dr. Jung-Hwan Kim, Asian Development Bank. The topics discussed were diverse, including considerations on international cooperation for green transition on the Korean Peninsula, lessons learned from normalization and development in Vietnam and the role of North Korea’s VNRs (Voluntary National Review) for denuclearization efforts. The presentations were followed by discussion panels.

The symposium on South Korea’s Audacious Initiative provided important input consisting of expert opinions on this policy, which did not shy away from criticism. Nevertheless, the majority of experts seemed quite optimistic that the new strategy has the potential to bear fruit in the future.

 

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