Besides USA; Japan, Russia, China also to play a key role in denuclearization of Korean Peninsula: Kwan-Sei Lee

NEW DELHI: Kwan-Sei Lee, Director of the Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES) and Former Vice-Minister of Unification, South Korea has said the countries like  Japan, Russia, China also are playing a key role in the attempts being made to effect denuclearization in Korean Peninsula.

“Though South Korea has long-term peace plans with the USA, it is maintaining relations with Russia and China also. Russia is playing a proactive role in the Korean Peninsula. The North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un visited Russia in April and Putin promised to visit North Korea next year. Let’s watch out if Putin visits North Korea next year,” said Kwan-Sei Lee, who has been instrumental in engineering South Korea’s policies toward North Korea in the past and present.

Lee was addressing a seminar ‘Denuclearization and Peace Process on the Korean Peninsula, and Inter-Korean Relations’ at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on December 20.  The Embassy of the Republic of Korea in cooperation with India Foundation organized this event.

While responding to a question, Lee said that the ongoing stressed relations with Japan did not affect the denuclearization and peace process as the leaders of three countries the USA, Japan, and South Korea are going to meet during a summit in China on December 24.

The purpose of the seminar was to familiarize Indian youth, academics and opinion leaders with recent developments on the Korean Peninsula, to generate informed Indian public opinion in favor of denuclearization and lasting peace on the Korean peninsula and benefit from Indian perspective on the whole issue.

Ambassador Shashank, Former Indian Ambassador to South Korea and Former Foreign Secretary moderated the session.

The Korean Peninsula Peace Process conceived and steered by Korea President Moon Jae-in is underway for the last two and a half years.

“Over this period, our efforts towards complete denuclearization and establishment of permanent peace on the Korean peninsula have seen some clear progress towards the goal with the intermittent period of stalemate and uncertainty,” stated a release issued by the Embassy of Republic of Korea in New Delhi.

To give an update and insight into the current state of denuclearization and the peace process and its challenges and opportunities, the eminent Korean expert –Kwan-Sei Lee, Director of the Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES) and Former Vice-Minister of Unification, joined the seminar on the invitation of Embassy.

Yoo Chang-ho, Minister Counsellor, Political Affairs, Embassy of the Republic of Korea, New Delhi said North Korean nuclear issue has lingered for almost 30 years and South Korea and the US have tried incessantly to stop North Korea from developing these weapons of mass destruction.

While highlighting the various policies applied to resolve this issue in history, he emphasized that under the present Korean government there has been an unprecedented amount of leadership exchanges – three Inter-Korean Summits and two summits between US-North Korea, which was not possible before.

The lecture presented a great opportunity to learn first-hand about the ongoing denuclearization and the peace process on the Korea Peninsula, the road ahead and implications of peace initiatives for the Korean Peninsula, region and the world at large.

Maj. Gen. Dhruv Katoch, Director, India Foundation made the opening remarks.