March 6, 2006

On March 6, 2006, in New York City, the National Committee on American Foreign Policy (NCAFP) and The Korea Society co-hosted a “by invitation only” conference with a DPRK delegation led by Ambassador Ri Gun, the vice director of the DPRK Institute of Disarmament and Peace. The purpose of the meeting was to explore the prospects for a resumption of the Six-Party Talks. This meeting took place one day before the delegation met with U.S. officials in New York to discuss U.S. allegations about the DPRK’s “illicit activities,” including counterfeiting of U.S. currency, money laundering and drug smuggling. These charges were the grounds for a finding issued by the U.S. Treasury that resulted in the freezing of DPRK assets in a bank in Macao. In addition to Ambassador Ri, the DPRK delegation included Ambassador Han Song Ryol, the deputy permanent representative of the DPRK to the United Nations; four officials from the DPRK Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the director of the DPRK Foreign Trade Bank. The American participants included Amb. Donald P. Gregg, president and chairman of The Korea Society, Dr. George D. Schwab and Dr. Donald S. Zagoria who are the president and Northeast Asia project director, respectively, of the NCAFP, and a number of other leading “Korea watchers” and experts from academe, government and the private sector.

The discussions were frank. During the first session, both sides said they were working on ways to implement the September 19, 2005 Joint Statement, which was agreed to by all six parties involved in the talks in Beijing. Mistrust ran high on both sides however. Members of the DPRK delegation said that many in their government felt that the financial sanctions placed on the country—ostensibly aimed at curbing the DPRK’s counterfeiting and smuggling activities—were actually meant to facilitate regime change, which they believe indicates the U.S. isn’t serious about finding a negotiated solution. A member of the American side rejected the charge, and told the DPRK delegation that the sanctions are only aimed at their government’s activities, not its sovereignty. Admitting the lack of trust, both sides said that the timing of conciliatory steps was a greater stumbling block than the steps themselves. Neither country, they agreed, wants to be the first to make necessary concessions.

During the second session, which was focused on finding ways to move forward, the suggestion was made that both the U.S and the DPRK should tone down their rhetoric and that issues of illicit activities should not be allowed to hold up the progress of the Six-Party Talks. As all agreed that perfect simultaneity of gestures would be a difficult goal to meet, negotiators in future rounds should focus on agreeing to a clear series of steps within a defined time period. The suggestion was also made on the U.S. side that the future sessions of the Six-Party Talks should include a discussion of a new security architecture for Northeast Asia.