The APEC summit has come to a close, having been held in Busan, the first time for Korea. The theme was "Towards One Community: Meet the Challenge, Make the Change," and the meeting did achieve progress in regional integration. We applaud the citizens of Busan for their fine performance.
The nature of APEC as the world's largest economic cooperation format has strong and weak points, because its membership is diverse and there is no one focal point so it is hard to know how to focus the discussion. Nevertheless it is still an achievement that they adopted the "APEC Economic Leaders Statement on Doha Development Agenda (DDA) Negotiations" and something they are calling the "Busan Roadmap." It is significant in and of itself that the summit dealt with common issues such as cooperation on avian flu and more work against corruption. President Roh Moo Hyun proposed APEC work to reduce economic disparity, and received the support of participating nations.
In separate summit talks with the United States, China, Japan, and Russia participating nations in the six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear issue were able to reaffirm their commitment to implementing the September 19 th Joint Declaration and there was other positive momentum relating to the six-party talks.
There was also progress in terms of developing a future-oriented U.S.-Korea alliance, the possibility of developing the six-party format into a multi-party security consultation, and discussion on converting the Korean War armistice agreement to a peace regime. Also of note is the fact Korea has agreed with China and Russia to strengthen economic cooperation. It is very regrettable, however, that Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi again defended his worshiping at the Yasukuni Shrine.
As is the case at other international meetings on commerce, APEC, too, saw protests opposing neo liberal globalization. The government needs to listen to those voices and use the accomplishments of the summit to fuel the resolution of the increasingly serious problem of economic disparity, and not just make progress in economic growth and the North Korean nuclear issue.
The Hankyoreh, 21 November 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
[Editorial] Progress After APEC |
