WASHINGTON – Today the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission) announced the following hearing:
“Resolving Crises in East Asia through a New System of Collective Security: the Helsinki Process as a Model”
December 11, 2013
2:00 p.m.
Dirksen Senate Office Building
Room 106
Since the end of the Korean War in 1953, U.S. relations with North Korea have been fraught with insecurity and instability. The threat of nuclear war and persistent reports of nuclear proliferation have often overshadowed the international community’s concerns about the domestic situation in North Korea during multiple famines and horrific reports of pervasive human rights violations. With a new leader in North Korea and no prospects for reviving the long-stalled Six-Party Talks, the international community has few options for effective engagement with North Korea.
The Helsinki Process, a multilateral approach to political, economic and human rights issues in Europe since the 1970s, has been credited with enhancing stability during the Cold War and helping to bring about dramatic political, social and economic change in Europe and Eurasia in the decades since. This comprehensive approach to security is often cited as a blueprint for effective engagement that can lead to increased security and a greater respect for human rights elsewhere around the globe. This hearing will examine the situation in East Asia, and the North Korean peninsula in particular, and discuss how a Helsinki-type process might help defuse tensions and promote greater cooperation in Northeast Asia.
The following witnesses are scheduled to testify:
- Mr. Carl Gershman, President, National Endowment for Democracy
- Ms. Karin Lee, Executive Director, The National Committee on North Korea
- Mr. Frank Jannuzi, Deputy Executive Director, Amnesty International
