The NAPCI in the Volatile Security Environment of North-East Asia: Which Role for the European Union?

Abstract:

President Park’s efforts to promote unification of the Korean Peninsula centres around ‘Trustpolitik’ with the North East Asian Peace and Cooperation Initiative (NAPCI) at its focal point. NAPCI is built on three pillars: First, trust-building with the DPRK concentrates on the divided peninsula with unification as the ultimate goal; secondly, NAPCI addresses the entire sub-region (comparable to the European Neighbourhood Policy) while, thirdly, the Eurasia Initiative docks onto the various connectivity or ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiatives by ASEAN and China respectively. In overcoming the legacies of its own past European states opted for deep integration in founding the European Union (EU).Therefore the article discusses the concept of ‘Trustpolitik’ and its implementation, deals with the challenges posed for NAPCI in the regional context, analyses the EU’s potential to contribute to the Initiative in highlighting positive examples of regional cooperation and trust-building in the European context and indicates how the EU could play a positive role in developing the Initiative.