By Chung Min-uck
Seoul on Tuesday held the launching event of a consultative council consisting of 21 foreign diplomatic missions stationed here that don’t have missions in North Korea but are in charge of affairs relating to both Koreas, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).
“I ask for your cooperation as we seek to consolidate sustainable peace so that we may overcome the current structure of division on the Korean Peninsula,” said Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se during his congratulatory speech made to the ambassadors of the countries. “We are hoping that by engaging in more efficient two-way communications we can broadly refine our understandings on North Korea.”
Dubbed the “Korean Peninsula Club,” the new body seeks to get a better grasp into the reclusive country that underwent a political upheaval following an unanticipated execution of once-powerful Jang Song-thaek, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s uncle and political mentor, in December.
Government officials and political pundits have speculated there may be military provocations by the North in the near future because the country will want to divert international attention away from its internal affairs.
Yun and ambassadors from the 21 embassies attended the Peninsula Club’s first gathering at the ministry’s headquarters in downtown Seoul.
The countries that joined the club included Australia, Canada, Italy, Denmark, Mexico and Turkey.
A MOFA official said the group’s formation will serve as a venue to get useful assessments and advice on North Korea because foreign officials in those missions have direct contact with North Korean officials, traveling to the Stalinist country at least once or twice a year.
Various inter-Korean issues are to be on the agenda of the gathering that are expected to take place quarterly or in response to crises, according to the ministry.
Seoul is also planning to launch another consultative body similar to the Korean Peninsula Club, which will be comprised of 24 countries that have separate establishments in Pyongyang, according to the official
The idea of launching the Korean Peninsula Club was first introduced during the foreign ministry’s yearly policy report to President Park Geun-hye earlier this month.
At that time, the MOFA said it will strengthen international cooperation to better facilitate the so-called PETA ― the principled and effective two-track approach ― a strategy that calls for using both pressure and dialogue in efforts to induce Pyongyang to give up its nuclear arms program, as uncertainty and instability grows in the North following Jang’s execution.
To that end, the ministry said it will step up strategic cooperation with the U.S., China and global bodies like the United Nations. The opening of the Korean Peninsula Club came as part of that effort.
Yun said in the policy reporting that he “will make efforts to secure the international community’s support to seek and encourage changes in North Korea.”