MOVING APDP FORWARD IN KOREA

C O N F I D E N T I A L SEOUL 001201 SIPDIS STATE FOR G,P,EAP,S/P,DRL,F,USAID; NSC FOR LETTOW,JEFFREY,ASIA,DEMOCRACY E.O. 12958: DECL: AFTER KOREAN REUNIFICATION TAGS: PGOV PREL KS SUBJECT: MOVING APDP FORWARD IN KOREA Classified By: POL M/C Joseph Y. Yun. Reasons 1.4(b/d) ¶1. (SBU) Summary: During meetings with Korean officials on June 11, NSC Senior Director Paul Lettow and S/P's Daniel Twining encouraged the ROK to renew its efforts to support the Asia Pacific Democracy Partnership (APDP) and to consider hosting a deputy minister-level meeting in the fall (September/October). MOFAT's Deputy Foreign Minister for Multilateral Affairs, Oh Joon, agreed that it was important for Korea and other countries to do some of the lifting on APDP in order to show that it was not just a U.S. effort. The Blue House's Deputy National Security Advisor, Kim Tae-hyo, said that the APDP partners needed to organize and improve communication. -------------- DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER OH JOON -------------- ¶2. (SBU) In a June 11 meeting with NSC's Paul Lettow and S/P's Daniel Twining, Deputy Foreign Minister Oh Joon said that Korea supported APDP and would participate "as much as possible" in APDP activities. It was important that the Asia Pacific Democracy Partnership (APDP) not be seen as a U.S. initiative and all partners should look to include other countries. DFM Oh confirmed that Korea planned to send two representatives to the APDP election monitoring mission to Mongolia to observe the June parliamentary election, noting that Korea and Mongolia share common ancestors and therefore their people enjoy a special relationship. ¶3. (SBU) MOFAT Deputy Director General Cho June-hyuck said that he was concerned the APDP might weaken the Community of Democracies (CD),a U.S.-led effort. Lettow replied that APDP is an off-shoot of the CD and that both are compatible. The CD specifically called for regional organizations that support democracy. The APDP was designed to take on regional efforts that the CD was not well suited to do. Additionally, APDP would look to focus on concrete activities, such as election observation and assistance, and in the areas of rule of law and parliamentary exchanges. ¶4. (SBU) Twining asked DFM Oh to consider hosting a deputy minister-level meeting for APDP partners in September. Korea was well situated to host this type of meeting as it had strong relations with each of the other partner countries, Lettow added. DFM Oh responded that holding a meeting in ;September might not be the best time as most people working on APDP were also responsible for U.N. issues and an UNGA session is currently scheduled for September. But they would consider hosting the meeting and determine the best timing. ¶5. (SBU) On a separate issue, DFM Oh asked for the reasoning behind the U.S. decision to disengage from the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC). Twining said that the U.S. had concerns with the HRC's record of numerous resolutions against Israel at the expense of other issues. This was not a step away from democracy or human rights, he added. When the new U.S. Administration took office in January 2009, it was likely to take another look at this issue although it was likely to see the same flaws, Twining stated. -------------- DEPUTY NSA KIM TAE-HYO -------------- ¶6. (SBU) In a separate meeting at the Blue House, Deputy National Security Advisor Kim Tae-hyo said that the democratic countries in the region should share their knowledge and experience with their non-democratic neighbors. In order to do this, Kim suggested that the APDP partners should organize themselves and communicate with one another. Lettow and Twining repeated the request for Korea to consider hosting an APDP meeting in the fall. Kim did not reply directly to the request but suggested that NGOs could play a vital role in spreading democratic principles in target countries. Kim expressed his hope that Northeast Asia issues, especially the Six-Party Talks, would not be overlooked by the U.S. because of pressing issues in the Middle East. ¶7. (C) Kim asked about the draft vision statement that was in the works for the planned July presidential summit in Seoul. He said that he was "very happy" with the close coordination between the White House and the Blue House on the initial drafts of the document. Kim said that he was waiting for the third version of the document after recently providing ROKG feedback. Kim also asked that Lettow and Twining ask Washington to be patient as the ROKG was going through a "tough" period of domestic politics. ¶8. (C) Kim said that USFK issues such as base transfers were particularly sensitive at this time and had the potential to be "as explosive as the beef issue." There was not likely to be any concrete movement on these issues in the time remaining before the summit in July. Kim said that President Bush would have a good visit to Korea but we should probably avoid discussing "tricky" issues to ensure that the visit was a success. He said that he also wanted to talk more regularly about longer-term issues such as post-reunification and contingency planning but the Security Consultation for an Allied Partnership (SCAP) format was too high-level. Kim recommended meeting once or twice a year with his U.S. counterparts to discuss these other issues. ¶9. (U) This cable was cleared by the delegation. VERSHBOW