Issue Coordinated Korea-Japan engagement in a future North Korean opening

Summary

The report argues that Korea's medium- to long-term strategy must already contain a clear method for actively drawing North Korea toward reform and opening, ready for when conditions allow it to rejoin the international community and show flexibility on economic development. Cooperation with Japan is presented as essential for the North's successful return and development, and coordinated Korean and Japanese engagement should serve the interests of both, which requires a framework for cooperation. If North Korea takes the path of reform in twenty to thirty years, the international structure for financing its infrastructure could become a central arena of competition and cooperation in Northeast Asian politics. Japanese economic cooperation funds tied to normalization of Japan-North Korea relations are expected to be the most important source of finance, possibly letting Japan take a leading role in the North's development. The report proposes launching a Northeast Asian Development Bank centered on North Korean infrastructure investment as an institutional framework for managing individual state engagement.