1. A multilateral inter-governmental meeting will take place for the second time since 2014 in order to implement President Park Geun-hye’s Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative (NAPCI).

◦ The Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Korea will hold the second meeting on Northeast Asia peace and cooperation in Seoul on October 28. Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Kim Hong-kyun will preside over the meeting that will bring together delegates from countries and international organizations taking part in the implementation of NAPCI, including the US, China, Japan, Russia, Mongolia, the UN, the EU, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the ROK-China-Japan Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat (TCS).

2. Unlike the meeting in 2014 where the delegations were led by director-general-level officials, the head delegates to the forthcoming round will be deputy-minister- or higher-level officials, who are expected to further bolster support for NAPCI from regional and global communities and further accelerate inter-governmental discussions on specific ways to fulfill the initiative.

◦ The scale of the 2015 meeting has also been expanded, with the number of international organizations that will participate in the meeting as dialogue partners (observers) increased to four from last year’s three. The expanded scale of the inter-governmental consultative mechanism demonstrates the international community’s growing interest in NAPCI and in attending relevant meetings.

◦ At the forthcoming meeting, Deputy Minister Kim and the other participants will review the progress in the implementation of NAPCI over the past year and discuss in depth the future direction for the progress in multilateral cooperation in Northeast Asia.

3. In conjunction with the inter-governmental meeting, the 2015 Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative Forum will take place from October 27 through 29 under the theme of “a new horizon of multilateral cooperation in Northeast Asia.”

◦ At the forum, about 200 academics and other civilian experts will focus on four soft issues of common concern of the countries in Northeast Asia -- energy security; cyber space; environment; and disaster management.

◦ With regard to nuclear safety, one of the issues of common concern in Northeast Asia, the International Forum on Northeast Asia Nuclear Safety Cooperation (the third Top Regulators Meeting+ [TRM+]) was successfully held on October 22 and 23 amid keen attention from the countries in the region and international organizations. The outcome of the third TRM+ will be reported on at the 2015 NAPCI Forum.

4. The inter-governmental meeting and the forum are expected to serve as a significant opportunity for the countries in Northeast Asia to further bolster their political support for NAPCI, broaden the scope of functional cooperation and increase the number of partners for such cooperation.


* unofficial translation.