Online Dialogue between GVI Finnish Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) on Korean Peninsula Issue

On September 26, 2023, Grandview Institution (GVI) and Finnish CMI- Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation held an online dialogue on Northeast Asian situation, especially the Korean Peninsula issue. Participants included Eero Suominen, the former Finnish Ambassador to South Korea; Dr. Robert Wihtol, the Advisor to CMI; Zhang Tosheng, Chairman of the Academic Committee and Director of the Center for Northeast Asian Studies of GVI; and Li Nan, Deputy Director of the Center for Northeast Asian Studies of GVI and Researcher with the Institute of American Studies at CASS. Minna Kukkonen-Karlander, Senior Program Director of CMI Asia, moderated the session.

The intensification of US-Japan-South Korea cooperation has made the Korean Peninsula's political situation and security landscape more complex and tense. The participants maintained that the inter-Korean talk be restarted and the two parties engage in substantive talks instead of blaming and professing each other and that multilateral dialogues and cooperation in the region be strengthened and a crisis management mechanism be established.