About the Project

A Project by the Peace Depot Inc.

Towards a Northeast Asia Nuclear Weapon Free Zone:

Citizens’ Watch for a Fair Implementation

of Korean Peninsula Denuclearization Agreements

(in short: Citizens’ Watch on the Implementation of Korean Denuclearization Agreements)

Outline
In the Panmunjom Declaration at the 2018 April 27 Inter-Korean summit, the Republic of Korea (ROK, South Korea) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea) agreed to cooperate to alleviate military tension, eliminate the danger of war and establish a permanent peace regime including a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. In the joint statement at the 2018 June 12 Singapore Summit between the United States and the DPRK, the two states set forth their common goal to establish new US-DPRK relationship for peace and prosperity and to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula. In this regard, the US has committed to providing security guarantees to the DPRK, and the DPRK has committed to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

These two summit agreements have dramatically changed the international landscape of Northeast Asia, which was on the brink of a possible nuclear war in 2017. Now we witness ongoing dialogue between North and South Korea and between the US and the DPRK. This is an historic change. Even after two significant turning points in modern history - the end of the World War II and the end of the Cold War - challenging relationships among regional states persist to this day in Northeast Asia. Disputes over damages in the DPRK caused by Japanese colonization have remained officially unsettled for more than 70 years. The Korean War has not officially ended more than 65 years after the 1953 ceasefire agreement.

Now is a golden opportunity to overcome these historical legacies and we want to make best use of this favorable moment.  To that end, we believe patient diplomatic efforts by concerned states to faithfully implement the two summit agreements are vitally important to reverse the long-standing mutual distrust among states.

In this process of diplomatic efforts, we believe the roles of civil society, especially in Japan, South Korea and the US, are vitally important. They need to appeal to their democratically elected governments about the importance of this opportunity and the necessity to gain an accurate understanding of previous negotiations concerning Korean Peninsula denuclearization and to draw lessons from them. Also, all civil society constituents, including legislators, municipal leaders and journalists, have to work diligently to eradicate distrust and biases deeply rooted in civil society.

Based upon such considerations, the Peace Depot Inc. has launched this project to keep close watch on the diplomatic process to realize the implementation of the summit agreements. While it seems possible to organize a joint project among NGOs in Japan, South Korea and the US, we have decided to adopt a project plan in which citizens in each country appeal to their own governments and civil society and closely communicate with each other. This approach would be more focused and effective in consideration of the differences in the political and historical backgrounds of each civil society. Most especially, in Japan as an atomic bombed state, the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is closely linked to Japan’s inherited mission to make Japan genuinely nuclear weapon-free, and to establish a Northeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone. We will closely cooperate with NGO colleagues working for the same cause in South Korea and the US.

Activities
1. Publication of “Watch Report”
-- first in Japanese, then shortly after, in Korean and English
-- irregular publication, roughly once every three weeks with several pages on A4 size paper
-- published in a free-access blog website, as well as through a mail-magazine sent to subscribed names
2. Visits and Representations to related Governmental Offices, including the Foreign Ministry of Japan
3. Organizing occasional public seminars
4. Organizing international workshops and symposiums in cooperation with US and ROK NGOs

Team and Staffing
1. Project Team:
Takuya MORIYAMA, Kana HIRAI, Hiromichi UMEBAYASHI*, Ichiro YUASA, Hajime MAEKAWA, Miho ASANO, Setsuko ARAI, Maria KIM (ROK), Patti WILLIS (Canada)  *inaugural team leader
2. In Cooperation With:
Korea: People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD)
Peace Network
USA: Peace Action
Western States Legal Foundation
Advisor: Panel on Peace and Security of Northeast Asia (PSNA) (Co-Chairs: Michael HAMMEL-GREEN (Australia), Peter HAYES (USA), MOON Jong-In (ROK) and TOMONAGA Masao (Japan)

Funding
  Peace Depot Inc. funds the first stage activities.
  Efforts will be made to raise funds in Japan and overseas.