The Pacific Century Institute is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization that promotes understanding among the nations and peoples of the Pacific Rim. 

Founded in 1990, its board members include people who are well known in South Korea ― like former U.S. ambassadors Donald Gregg, who is the board chairman; and Kathleen Stevens; former Korean Ambassador to Russia Lee In-ho; Yonsei University professor Moon Chung-in; syndicated columnist Tom Plate and New York University professor Jerome A. Cohen.

Despite its quarter-century of history and rich list of prominent members, the PCI is not as well known in Korea as other U.S.-based organizations like the Korea Society. This is perhaps because the PCI is an Asia-wide organization and it has not held any major event in South Korea, although it has organized and sponsored some programs related to Korea.

So the PCI, which marks its 25th anniversary this year, brought the celebrations to South Korea.

The celebrations were highlighted by a dinner at a Seoul hotel Tuesday, which drew more than 300 people, including former prime ministers, ministers, ambassadors, academics and journalists.

The event also coincided with the publication of the Korean translation of Gregg’s book: “Pot Shards: Fragments of a Life Lived in CIA, the White House and the Two Koreas.”

The board members chose forging a bipartisan South Korean policy on North Korea as the theme of the dinner. In its official invitation, the PCI noted that South Korea’s conservative and progressive political parties needed to create a bipartisan, fundamental policy for dealing with North Korea and issues like rapprochement, unification and regional security.

Given the wide gap between conservatives and progressives in South Korean society ― especially regarding North Korea ― the PCI selected the most suitable theme for its first major event here.

It also invited an appropriate guest speaker to discuss the theme of the day ― former German Defense Minister Volker Ruhe. As a key member of West Germany’s conservative Christian Democratic Union, Ruhe worked with the progressive Social Democratic Party to develop the successful bipartisan “Ostpolitik” toward East Germany.

Like other German leaders who speak about German lessons on Korean reunification, Ruhe started his keynote speech by mentioning what enabled German unification.

First, the prime mover for the unity of what had been a border area between the NATO and the Warsaw Pact came from a change in Moscow. In view of the European political and security architecture at the time, a simple national approach would have failed, he noted.

The second important factor for the German reunification was the fact that the two Germanys had maintained contact and ties in spite of the division and that West German political parties kept a bipartisan position on overcoming national division.

Ruhe noted that unlike Germany, whose division was the result of its aggression in 1939, Korea’s division is unnatural and can be overcome by themselves. There are no foreign forces in North Korea, unlike East Germany, which had 400,000 Soviet troops under the Warsaw Pact.

What’s important, Ruhe said, is to strengthen human ties between the two Koreas and forge a bipartisan policy on reunification as the divided Germanys did. A bipartisan position on contacts, dialogue and investment in reunification is also important.

PCI chairman Gregg also urged dialogue with the North. He said that the Kim Jong-un regime would be around for a long time and that the time had come for South Korea to do something for North Korea to open dialogue and lay the ground for unification.

Gregg, a former CIA officer who was the U.S. ambassador to South Korea 1989-1993, is a strong advocate of engaging North Korea, which tied him up with the late liberal President Kim Dae-jung.

The two men’s relationship dates back to 1973 when Kim was abducted in Japan by South Korean intelligence agents. Gregg was the chief CIA officer in South Korea at the time, and he was a point man for the U.S. efforts to save Kim’s life. Gregg again played a key role in saving Kim’s life in 1980, when military coup leaders sentenced him to death.

So it was quite natural that Gregg, who also served as the chairman of the Korea Society, maintained a close relationship with Kim and his close aides for a long time. That Korean participants in the PCI dinner were predominantly former aides to Kim and the late President Roh Moo-hyun, a liberal who succeeded Kim, proved the level of relations between Gregg and progressive Koreans.

In fact, the dinner looked like a gathering of former lieutenants of Kim and Roh: Former prime ministers Goh Kun and Han Myeong-sook, former deputy prime minister Han Wan-sang, former top presidential aide Lim Dong-won, former Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan and former ambassadors to the U.S. Yang Sung-chul, Ra Jong-yil and Lee Tae-sik.

Not surprisingly, Moon Jae-in, leader of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, showed up and exchanged greetings with his former and current liberal colleagues.

In contrast, there were few current senior government officials ― even from the Foreign Ministry ― and members of the conservative ruling party, who usually would not ignore an international meeting of this kind.

Looking around the tables, I suddenly realized that, on the same day, a conservative newspaper had opened an annual international forum, which drew foreign dignitaries as well as President Park Geun-hye, senior government officials and ruling party members.

It was ironic to confirm the gap between conservatives and progressives at an event whose theme was closing it. During the dinner Gregg quipped that he had not been forgiven for supporting Kim Dae-jung. Leaving the dinner hall, I felt ― with some bitterness ― that his remark was not a joke, but a rebuke at the entrenched ideological polarization in Korean society.

By Chon Shi-yong 

Chon Shi-yong is the chief editorial writer of The Korea Herald. He can be reached at sychon@heralcorp.com. ― Ed.