North Korea is likely to engage in unofficial, multilateral talks that include the US next month, according to a Northeast Asia policy specialist. North Korean officials are looking for more clarity about the US government’s willingness to engage in formal dialogue and under what terms, Ralph Cossa, president of Pacific Forum CSIS and former special assistant to the head of US Pacific Command, told the South China Morning Post. “There’s going to be a Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) general conference in December and they’ve been invited and we think they’re going to come”, Cossa said. “We’re trying to use track II to educate and push track I forward”. CSCAP, a 21-member forum for security issues in the region, includes delegations from North Korea, China, Russia and the US and often schedules meetings to coincide with convocations of the Asean Regional Forum. Cossa, whose think tank organises US delegations to CSCAP meetings, made the remarks after a round-table discussion at the New York-based Korea Society. The next CSCAP general meeting will convene on December 14 and 15 in Chiang Mai, Thailand with the theme of the conference billed “towards a peaceful transformation of regional order in the Asia Pacific”.
