Bulgarian Atlantic Club Urges EU to Be Proactive in Korean Peninsula Unification

Diplomacy | January 10, 2011, Monday // 19:07|  views

(L-R) Bulgarian Ambassador to Korea Kosyo Kitipov, Korean Minister of Unification Hyun In-taek, President of the Bulgarian Atlantic Club Solomon Passy, member of the Board of the Bulgarian Atlantic Club Maxim Behar in Seoul, Dec 2010. Photo by M3

The Atlantic Club of Bulgaria has sent a letter to the key EU institutions in order to promote EU's active participation in the unification of the Korean Peninsula in the wake of high-level visit to South Korea by a Club delegation.

The visit of the delegation of the Bulgarian Atlantic Council to South Korea in December 2010 was the first of its kind in the 20-year history of the diplomatic relations between the Republic of Bulgaria and the Republic of Korea.

The delegation consisting of the President of the Atlantic Club Bulgaria, Solomon Passy, and businessman Maxim Behar, CEO of M3 Communications Group, Inc., who is an Atlantic Club Board member, was in Korea at the invitation of the Korean government and the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. As part of their program, the Bulgarian delegates met with Korea's Unification Minister Hyun In-taek, among a number of other meetings.

"The European Union has the potential to play a very serious role in the process of unification of the Korean Peninsula. The EU has 10 former communist countries, including Bulgaria, that have the necessary know-how on how to deal with communism and post-communist transitions," the President of the Bulgarian Atlantic Club Solomon Passy said in Sofia on Monday at a joint news conference with South Korean Ambassador to Bulgaria Chun Bi-ho and Atlantic Club Board member Maxim Behar.

Passy revealed that at the beginning of January 2011 he had a working trip to the US with meetings at the US State Department to discuss with US officials the idea to have EU peacekeeping forces replace part of the US forces on the Korean Peninsula.

He said the Atlantic Club of Bulgaria has sent a formal letter in support of this idea to EU High Representative on foreign and security policy Catherine Ashton with copies to EC President Jose Manuel Barroso, EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy, EP President Jerzy Buzek, and Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov.

"The EU must assume its responsibility in the peacekeeping mission on the Korean Peninsula because the Lisbon Treaty stipulates that it should seek to become a global power, and because it is the EU that has the precise know-how with respect to unification and transition. If there is somebody missing from the six-party talks for the Korean Peninsula, it is the EU. This is a very unnatural absence since the EU is the one actor with the proper know-how that can have a very important contribution to the peace and unification on the peninsula," Passy explained.

Behar has remarked in turn that Korea's Unification Minister Hyun In-taek paid very special attention to Passy's presentation of Bulgaria's National Unification in 1885 and its integration in the EU at the beginning of the 21st century, and that he expressed a desire for further talks with respect to the Bulgarian experience.

During Monday's news conference in Sofia, South Korea's Ambassador to Bulgaria Chun Bi-ho explicitly declared his country's readiness and will to deepen and broaden its ties with Bulgaria. He especially praised Dr. Solomon Passy for his activeness and insight.

"It is with the insight of Dr. Passy that Bulgaria became a NATO and EU member, and it is with his insight that it is now expanding its horizons to the Asia-Pacific region... The experience of the Bulgarian post-communist transition should be used as a lesson by North Korea," His Excellency stated.

The ambassador point out that the major issues on Korean Peninsula at present first focused on its denuclearization, the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, and avoiding military provocations, and then – on Korea's potential national unification.

He cited an article by Passy discussing Libya's renunciation of its nuclear program pointing out that if North Korea got to do the same, it would become a more responsible member of the international community, and would enjoy a better status.

Article about the investment and business projects with Korea facilitated by the Bulgarian Atlantic Club READ HERE

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Tags: Atlantic club in Bulgaria, Atlantic Club, Solomon Passy, Maxim Behar, South Korea, North Korea, Chun Bi-ho, Korean Ambassador, Kosyo Kitipov, Unification Minister, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Hyun In-taek, Seoul, EU, Catherine Ashton, Common Foreign and Security Policy, CFSP, USA, State Department

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