The Promise of the Six-Party Process
Wade Huntley
February 10, 2009
Source: Foreign Policy in Focus
Over the past two decades, engagement with North Korea by the United States and the rest of the world has waxed and waned. This vacillation is evident even in the past year. The Six-Party Talks process produced both optimistic progress toward disabling Korea’s nuclear facilities and, more recently, a return to negotiation stagnation and new North Korean threats to resume nuclear weapons development.
Observers considering the broader implications of this seesawing, seemingly interminable crisis for broader East Asian relations may consider two questions. First: Can the Six-Party Talks, which involve the United States, Russia, China, Japan, and the two Koreas, contribute to reducing nuclear threats and enhancing security cooperation in the region more broadly? Second: What can civil society organizations do to facilitate progress in this wider context and to ensure that such progress contributes to human security as well as national security goals?
From a vantage point beyond the day-to-day shifts in negotiating positions, we can see that the answers to these questions are strongly connected. This six-country process can help reduce nuclear threats throughout the region, but only if civil society plays a critical role in the process.
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