North Korea says it successfully launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile -- missile last week. The U. S. did not immediately dismiss the test as a failure. While North Korea was showing off its military capability, the nuclear diplomat was meeting with the U. S. and others by a talk organized by UC San Diego. It is the first time North Korea's diplomat has attended the talks since 2012. This woman is the director emeritus of the Institute on global conflict and cooperation. Welcome to the program. Thank you very much. It is nice to be here. How important is it that North Korea's nuclear envoy attended the talks? It shows an interest in reaching out with official talks with the United States. You think it indicates the possibility of North Korea reaching out for official talks? I think so. The position of North Korea now as articulated by their representative, the head of the U. S. section of the Foreign Ministry who came to the Northeast cooperation dialogue is that although they are existing -- the nuclear weapons that they have already built over these years have failed negotiations between North Korea and the United States and other countries. Those nuclear weapons are not on the table. They will only give up those nuclear weapons when the entire world is denuclearize. When President Obama's goal of a nuclear free world is realize. The current nuclear weapons program and the nuclear material they are producing, the current program and future weapons they say are linked to how safe and secure the field. -- They feel. That is where said that if they somehow were made to feel more secure, they might be willing to freeze that production. What he read into the timing of the missile launch? Did it happen while this dialogue was going on? I don't read anything into it. This dialogue is an unofficial dialogue. It is tracked 1.5. The missile test continues. We had even before this intercontinental ballistic missile test to which is not seem to be terribly successful. It is an important reminder that while on the one hand they are showing a little bit of interest now in reaching out and having TOX, at the same time a faith nuclear test any time now. Let me go back for a minute talk about the Northeast Asia cooperation dialogue itself. He mentioned that the talks are in formal. The participants are extensively there as private citizens, not as government representatives. Do the diplomats have any chance to engage with each other informally? Do that you with one another? Do they have private talks with one another? I don't know about private talks but they certainly are having meals together. They are in the room together. It is a combination of government officials, defense officials, military officers, and academics from the six countries of North Korea, South Korea, the United States, Japan, China, and Russia. I know that you cannot talk about what was said in these closed-door meetings. You tell us what topics were talked about? Certainly. In addition to talking about the Korean Peninsula issues, the security issues on the Korean Peninsula as well as the North Korea economy, we have a session on the North Korean economy where North Korean folks are telling us what is going on as well as other experts on North Korean economy are talking about it. We also had a session on U. S. China relations. The tension right now between the United States and China has big regional impacts. Interestingly, right after the missile test we had a session on missile deployments and missile defense. We talk about how to build regional security cooperation. My personal goal here and the reason that I founded the dialogue back in 1993 is the hope that eventually we will have an official multilateral security cooperation in Northeast Asia where we have these for big powers in North and South Korea. Thank you so much. I've been speaking with the founder of the Northeast cooperation dialogue, Susan Shirk.
North Korea last week said it successfully launched an intermediate-range high-altitude missile, and for the first time, the U.S. did not immediately dismiss the test as a failure. But while North Korea was showing off its military progress, its nuclear diplomat was meeting with the U.S. and others at a forum organized by UC San Diego in Beijing.
The forum, called the Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue, was founded in 1993 by Susan Shirk, the former director of UCSD's Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Officials from China, Japan, North and South Korea, Russia and the U.S. are invited each year, but North Korea rarely attends. Its first appearance was in 2002 and it hasn't been part of the talks since 2012.
Choe Son Hui, deputy director general of the North Korean Foreign Ministry's U.S. affairs bureau, was part of formal talks between those six countries to end North Korea's nuclear program. But they have not met since 2008. Choe was at the forum last week.
Shirk joins KPBS Midday Edition Wednesday to discuss what progress, if any, was made at the forum and the reaction to North Korea's missile test.
