Annual Reports

Background

Objectives

1. To show how a relational approach can provide a framework for the Korean Peninsula because it draws on features of both DPRK and ROK history and ideologies, as well as the shared traditions and values of the Korean people.
2. To hold a series of confidential Consultations from October 2018 to February 2023, attended by invited participants across political divides, members of the international community and appropriate technical expertise, at a secure and neutral venue, to explore the feasibility and growth potential of a relational approach across the major sectors of agriculture, business and the public sector.

Context

Relationships have been unsettled in the Korean Peninsula since 1950, and indeed for several decades before that. Despite many families having members on both sides of the 38th Parallel, and many attempts at détente, relations between DPRK and ROK have remained polarised and often tense, as today. However, the shared language and long history of Korean culture offers hope that the future lies in unity rather than division. What is critically needed is an agreed ideological foundation and framework for political economy which can enable all parties to come together around a shared vision for the future of the Peninsula.

It should not be assumed that in the future, DPRK will dominate due to its nuclear capability or that ROK will dominate due to its larger industrial and economic base. Although the population of ROK is nearly double that of DPRK and its GDP, as measured using the usual international measures, many times that of the DPRK, the identity of DPRK is distinctive and cannot easily be absorbed into ROK, nor ROK into DPRK.

What needs to be worked towards is a true partnership, and transformation of the political economy of both societies, through re-focusing on the importance of relationships in families, communities, companies, schools and across society. This draws on the deepest roots of Korean culture, which emphasises the importance of relationships for personal well-being, stable communities and national and international security.

The diaspora Korean communities have an important role to play in reaching out to connections in both DPRK and ROK, and in helping to equip them with skills and resources. Assistance needs to be provided not just in terms of money or food, but rather in the building up of relationships within which skills can be transferred and needs can be served, not merely by individual exchanges but also by exchanges between those communities.

Framework of the Process: Venue and Participants

The Consultations are planned to take place in a neutral venue outside Korea under the Chatham House rule (i.e. while discussions will be documented, specific comments will not be attributed to individual speakers). The results of the Consultations will be conveyed to the key actors either by the participants themselves, or by the RPI Executive.

1. Korean participants: Selected participants will be invited from DPRK and ROK. Wherever possible they will attend in their personal capacities and ideally should not be current holders of government or political office but at the same time should have access to their respective governments and political groupings. These would be selected from those who carry influence with centres of political authority, yet who are independent of political leadership. They will be selected by the RPI Executive.
2. International interlocutors: There will be four interlocutors with links to the respective governments of China, Russia, Japan, and USA. Their role will be to contribute insights about the positions and views of various international actors and then convey reports about the discussions to those actors. They will be selected and invited directly by the RPI Executive.
3. Panel of experts: For each Consultation, there will expert contributors who will be commissioned by the RPI Director of Research to prepare and deliver papers carefully tailored to undergird and stimulate the discussion in a constructive way forward for the sector under consideration. The role of the experts will be to:
   • contribute presentations to the Consultations
   • comment on drafts of the discussion documents
   • contribute to the discussion at the Consultations

Outline of the Proposed Consultations for 2018 – 2023

The focus of the early Consultations will be on the need to establish and encourage good relationships as the bedrock of a sound and sustainable economy across the Korean Peninsula as a whole. The role of the Korean diaspora in helping to build relationships will be explored, as also the need for the relational evaluation of public services (education and healthcare), as well as agriculture, industries, business and finance.

It is envisaged that the first four Consultations will focus on: food and agricultural self-sufficiency, education, healthcare, business.

Korean Initiative in 2017

The Design Process up to the end of 2016

The seeds for the process were sown at a meeting at Cotswold Farm in September 2014 where Dr Young Gil Lee attended through the good offices of Professor Prabhu Guptara and met Dr Michael Schluter and Dr Jeremy Ive.

This was followed by visits to Korea by Dr Michael Schluter in May 2015 where contact was made with PeaceCorea, who would become partners in the process with Relational Peacebuilding.

Dr Ive visited Seoul in October 2015 to meet PeaceCorea and work began on the design of a process for peacebuilding in the peninsula. A concept proposal was drawn up for the initiative.

In November 2016, Dr Schluter and Dr Ive travelled to Korea again at the invitation of PeaceCorea. The purpose of the visit was to create a partnership between RPI and PeaceCorea – Dr Lee Young-Gil organised the meeting.

An MoU was signed between RPI and PeaceCorea in Chuncheon, a city in the north-east of South Korea, in the province of Gangwon which wants to establish itself as a city of peace. The MoU was signed by Dr Huh, Executive Director PeaceCorea, Dr Lee, Dr Schluter and Dr Ive. A former Prime Minister, Dr Chun Un-Chang, was also present as well as Ahn Dong-Gyu, Dean of the Graduate School of Business at Hallym University.

Activity Report for the Calendar Year 2017

In March, Dr Schluter and Dr Ive travelled to Korea and had meetings with the President and faculty of the universities of Kangwon and Handong, and with the President of PyongYang University of Science and Technology

In August 2017, Dr Schluter and Dr Ive went to Kona in Hawaii where 50 leaders of Mission and Church organisations in South Korea met together to discuss Relational Issues concerned with the Re-Unification of the Peninsula.

In October and November 2017, the main focus was on developing the new website for RPI together with a crowd funding platform. This involves another visit to Korea by Dr Schluter with another IT specialist to have discussion with a local South Korean company to help with the technical development.

Notes

1. Concordis International’s shares a common history with RPI, emerging from the work of the Newick Park Initiative in South Africa (1986–91), in post-genocide Rwanda (1994–7), and, under Relational Foundations auspices, in Sudan and South Sudan, since 1999. For more information on the Newick Park Initiative, see http://www.jubilee-centre.org/history-newick-park-initiative-jeremy-ive/.
2. http://relationalthinking.net/relational-research/
3. See paper entitled “What is Relational Peacebuilding”.

President’s Statement for 2017

It is my privilege to write the President’s statement for this annual report, having taken over as President from January 2018. I would like to acknowledge the work of our former President, Ms Beris Gwynne, who stepped down at the end of 2017. What is in this annual report is a reflection of her leadership and outstanding contribution to the development of RPI as a fledgling peacebuilding organisation, albeit it with a team with a long track record in successful Track 2 activity.

As the report shows, a great deal of work was done in Ukraine to contribute to finding a solution to the severe environmental problems in Donbas which have resulted from the continuing conflict in that region. In addition, the core ideas of a Relational approach to business were advanced through lectures and discussions in Kyiv.

As you will see in this report, RPI also opened a new area of work in the Korean peninsula which followed from a Memorandum of Understanding signed with a Korean peace organisation, PeaceCorea, in November 2016. There have been several visits by the RPI team to the Republic of Korea and elsewhere during the course of the year I would like to take this opportunity to thank Michael Schlueter, Executive Director, whose passion and inspiration lies behind both the founding and ongoing work of the RPI. His tireless personal and academic contribution has been simply immense. Alongside Michael, Dr Jeremy Ive, Senior Adviser has brought a remarkable depth of political and diplomatic analysis and insight to shape RPI’s thinking. Both he and Michael have given sacrificially all year and deserve the highest recognition.

I would also thank my colleagues on the Board and indeed all our donors who have given either financial support or their time, or both, to realise our achievements in 2017. I look forward to working with them all in 2018 and a growing network of interested parties and supporters. Together we form an informal but vital partnership. This year has already started in the most exciting way possible in the Korean peninsula with the opening of a window of opportunity for peace. The challenge is now to help Koreans from both parts of the Peninsula and the Korean diaspora to build a common framework, which we believe should be along Relational lines. Only in this way can their common future be peaceful, prosperous and resilient to world events.

Clive Mather, President
30th April 2018

President’s Statement for 2018

This has been an exciting year for RPI in its engagement and progress in finding a basis for peaceful resolution of the conflictual relations in the Korean Peninsula, and between DPRK and the United states.

During the year, Choongil Han joined us as the manager of Korea Program in the office in Cambridge, and we were sorry to see our Geneva office manager, Lauriane Chakowski who moved on after a short period to take up a doctoral program at Yonsei University in Seoul.

Our CEO (Dr. Michael Schluter) and our senior advisor (Dr. Jeremy Ive) have travelled extensively during the 12 months of 2018. This has included visits 6 times to ROK, 4 times to Switzerland (Geneva and Bern) and 3 times to Washington DC. The goal of these visits has been to build relationships with senior policymakers, directly and also through their official government representatives and others with informal influence over the policymaking process. Many key relationships were established, as well as confidence in RPI’s credentials in peacebuilding internationally, due to its previous experience in Africa, as well as trust in its intention to pursue peace as an international mediator without any other political or economic vested interest.

Out of the many discussions that were held on the ground in each of these three countries, and extensive research and debate among colleagues in the Cambridge office and its associated organizations in the Relational family of organizations, progress was made towards identifying a way forward towards peace in the Korean Peninsula which meets the concerns of each of the three parties.

The RPI proposal is a process of Economic and Social Convergence of DPRK and ROK. This recognizes that both are powerful states, one in terms of financial and technological capability and the other in terms of military and technological capability. Both need to be recognized so that the future lies, in the RPI view, not in terms of conquest and takeover but rather a process of convergence in the areas of economic and social policy and institutions. After the period of 5 to 7 years, RPI believes the preconditions would be met for discussion about political unification.

The role of United States in this process would be to encourage the international community to consider sanctions exemptions, but only between North and South Korea, and only on a sector-by-sector basis after DPRK and ROK have agreed joint policy for the sector concerned and investment priorities. This would open a way for international investment into the Peninsula, especially into DPRK. Also, a large-scale exchange of students and professionals is advocated to build social and personal relationships between present and future leaders across many different sectors of public life in the Peninsula.

It is our hope that these ideas will be explored, developed and adapted by the parties to the conflict so that the debate can move on from an exclusive focus on denuclearization, however important this may be on a long-term basis. The immediate opportunity is to focus attention on governance and development issues, and the building of shared values, to make possible closer relationships at all levels of society between DPRK and ROK for the future which is likely to lead to de-escalation of fears of military conflict and an increased desire from all parties for peace to be realized in the Peninsula.

Clive Mather, President
14 June 2019

President’s Statement for 2019

During 2019 our Korean peace initiative gathered momentum rapidly. This was both in terms of progress with identifying the framework for a Track Two process, as well as developing relationships with a wide range of influential organisations and individuals concerned with peace in the Korean peninsula.

Our President and key advisers travelled a number of times to Geneva, Seoul, Washington DC, New York, and London, to have discussions with senior diplomats and policy advisers about RPI’s research and concerns for the countries of East Asia. They were able to explore the feasibility of specific sanctions exemptions between North and South Korea, and ways to bring about both economic and social convergent development between them.

The research culminated in a workshop with 25 regional, diplomatic and public policy specialists who met at a Cambridge University college in October to discuss the draft RPI report entitled ‘Building Relationships and Trust across the Korean Peninsula: a Mutually-agreed Economic and Social Convergence Strategy’.

After taking account of the advice provided by these experts at the seminar, which was generously funded by the UniKorea Foundation, RPI was able to publish this report in both the North and South Korean dialects, and in English. (For more information please go to the RPI website http://www.relationalpeacebuilding.org). In December, it was decided that the full title of what RPI is seeking to achieve in the Korean Peninsula should be restated as ‘A Mutually-Agreed Economic and Socially Convergent Development Strategy’. This clarifies the primary focus and driver of our peace-building.

The Board and I have been so grateful for the generous support, both financially and in term of time and insight, from many individuals and international trusts, which has enabled our work to proceed over the last year. The main areas of our activity have continued to be research and developing relationships with the diplomatic community.

I would also like to take this opportunity to record my thanks to Dr Michael Schluter (President & CEO), Dr Jeremy Ive (Senior Adviser) and all the RPI staff for their unstinting commitment to the cause of peace in the Peninsula and the personal sacrifices they have made to the work of RPI.

We look forward with hope and optimism to continuing to work with our partners, and a growing network of supporters from many countries, to bring our proposals published in 2019 into practical effect in 2020. Our goal is to facilitate progress and peace in the relationship between North and South Korea, underpinned by the support of the US, China, Russia, Japan and other countries in the international community.

Clive Mather, President
22nd July 2020

President’s Statement for 2020

The year 2020 was one of consolidation, building stronger foundations for our involvement in helping to bring peace to the Korean peninsula. Due to Covid-19, travel by the team to key international centres of influence ceased after February 2020 after final visits to both Seoul and Geneva, including meetings with the DPRK and Mongolian ambassadors to the UN in Geneva.

From March onwards, our attention shifted to three main areas of work

1. Increasing our knowledge across all major sectors of the economy through commissioning multiple background papers, culminating in the first full draft have a book, provisionally entitled ‘Towards One Relational Korea: unification without absorption or assimilation’.
2. Crystallising the terms and detailed feasibility of a bilateral free trade agreement between North and South Korea. With the help of two former senior IMF economists, this included development of a currency arrangement to ensure that such trade would not generate hard-currency which could be directed towards North Korea’s nuclear program; this was especially important to alleviate US concerns and make it more feasible to expect the US to agree to incremental sanctions exemptions in return for incremental denuclearisation.
3. Strengthening our network of connections across the international diplomatic, think tank and university communities to help access support, advice and information for our proposals for a way forward for peace in the peninsula.

All of this represented a great deal of hard work by the team and is beginning to yield significant benefits in 2021.

The Board and I have been grateful again for generous support, both financially and in term of time and insight, from many individuals, which has enabled our work to proceed over the last year. I would also like to take this opportunity to record my thanks to Dr Michael Schluter (President & CEO), Dr Jeremy Ive (Senior Adviser) and all the RPI staff for their unstinting commitment to the cause of peace in the Peninsula and the personal sacrifices they have made for the work of RPI.

We look forward with hope and optimism to continuing to work with our partners, and a growing network of supporters from many countries, to bring our proposals published in 2020 into practical effect in 2021. Our goal continues to be to facilitate progress and peace in the relationship between North and South Korea, underpinned by the support of the US, China, Russia, Japan and other countries in the international community.

Clive Mather, President
August 2021

President’s Statement for 2021

The year 2021 was a roller-coaster year due to Covid, with travel restrictions only being lifted for a few months intermittently. This gave the opportunity for a focus on research in which RPI had two objectives:

1. First, to apply the social philosophy and framework for public policy called ‘relationism’ to the societies of North Korea and South Korea, as an alternative to both Korean Capitalism and Korean Socialism which both Koreas might accept as a way forward towards reunification.
2. Second to develop a specific proposal of how to start the process of what RPI has termed ‘Mutual Convergent Development’.

Substantial progress was made over the year on both fronts. In terms of how to start the process, the initial proposal was for a bilateral free trade agreement between North Korea and South Korea. The proposal was published in an article in the Korea Times in August 2021. This then developed further into a proposal which RPI termed KPAC, Korean Peninsula Agriculture Community. This idea is based on the precedent of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which helped resolve the dangerous conflict between France and Germany in 1950. It was presented at a seminar on Zoom in October hosted by US Institute of Peace in Washington DC.

An in-person meeting was held at a Cambridge college, chaired by Professor Alan Barrell, on the subject ‘Use of Relational Goals and Processes to achieve better outcomes in innovation/technology transfer and international peacebuilding’. This drew in a number of senior Cambridge academics and business entrepreneurs to reflect on how a relationships-based approach can impact on the success of technological innovation as well as on International peace building possibilities.

Internationally, RPI continued developing its network of connections as circumstances allowed, focusing on the Ministry of Unification in South Korea and the North Korean Embassy in London. It also included strengthening connections with major think tanks in Washington DC, the Department of Political and Peacebuilding affairs at the UN in New York, and several European countries including the UK. The team made two trips to Switzerland to meet with the Swiss Foreign Minister, and the Swiss Foreign Ministry, to discuss the possibility of holding informal exploratory meetings between North Korean and South Korean advisors in the future when both Koreas are ready to meet.

The Board and I are ever grateful for the generous support, both financially and in term of time and insight, from many individuals, which has enabled our work to proceed over the last year. I would also like to take this opportunity to record my thanks to Dr Michael Schluter (President & CEO), Dr Jeremy Ive (Senior Adviser) and all the RPI staff for their unstinting commitment to the cause of peace in the Peninsula and the personal sacrifices they have made for the work of RPI. It is my hope that the fruit of this year’s work will be seen in major steps forward in 2022. The goal continues to be to facilitate progress and peace in the relationship between North and South Korea, underpinned by the support of the US, China, Russia, Japan and other countries in the international community. This is my final year as Chairman and the Board is currently in the process of appointing my successor. It has been my privilege to serve the organisation and its aims. I shall continue to support its work as best I am able, not least in praying for a diplomatic breakthrough. Given the opportunity, I believe that the peace building approach of RPI can build relationships, reconciliation and a lasting peace in the Peninsula.

Clive Mather, President
August 2021

The year 2022 was a year of considerable progress for RPI, with work focused on improving relations between the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

RPI continued with its programme of diplomatic outreach and promotion of relational peacebuilding within the Korean peninsula. The highlights of this work were:

• A trip to Washington DC (April) by CEO Michael Schluter (MS) and Korea Program Manager Steven Seo (SS). They had meetings with John Mellor (the ROK Ambassador to the US) and Uma Lele, current president of the International Association of Agricultural Economists. In addition, MS and SS presented at a meeting on ‘Korean Peninsula Agriculture Community: Challenges and Opportunities’ hosted by NCNK (National Committee on North Korea) and USIP (United States Institute of Peace), with the support of CFR (Council on Foreign Relations). Although it was a small group, a good discussion ensued with a high level of interest and engagement, and general support for the proposal.
• In March/April, MS and SS visited ROK and a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Handong University and RPI to work together towards achieving peace in the Korean Peninsula.
• In June, MS presented the proposal for a ‘Korean Peninsula Agriculture Community: Challenges and Opportunities’, at Westminster Central Hall. The idea is based on the precedent of the one-sector trade agreement between France and Germany in 1951 which gradually led to the Europe Union.
• Also in June, MS spoke in Switzerland on ‘Global Leadership Transformation: Key Biblical Principles to Shape Policies and Practices and Build Strong Institutions and Nations’.
• In September, MS travelled with Dr Benjamin Moses (of Global Leadership Geneva Bern) to a third-party country to explore the possibility of the country speaking with DPRK and potentially hosting a meeting between North and South Korea to enable them to explore together the possibility of starting a peace process through a trade agreement focused initially on agricultural commodities.
• In November, MS and SS visited ROK and met with the Deputy Minister of Ministry of Unification.
• In December, MS visited Switzerland and held meetings in Geneva and Bern.

The year culminated in the publication in November of MS’ book entitled ‘No Other Way to Peace in Korea? A Practical Path to Reunification’. This involved an extensive period of continuing research based in Cambridge, as well as two visits to South Korea, in March/April and November. The book explored not only how a peace process could be initiated through the establishment of a Korean Peninsula Agricultural Community to re-establish peaceful relations through trade. The underlying principle of Mutual Convergent Development is also explored and developed in the book.

In July, the Board appointed a new Chairman for RPI following the resignation of Clive Mather, who had completed five years as an excellent Chairman. Professor Alan Barrell accepted the appointment as Board Chairman and Lauriane Kim was also appointed as a new board member during the year.

Dr Paul Mills, Chairman of the Board
November 2022

(In May 2023, Professor Alan Barrell unfortunately needed to step down as Chairman due to ill-health. He agreed that I should sign the report for 2022 as current Chairman.)