GS(JK) 30: Letter to the Head of the Parliamentary Relations Team,

Foreign and Commonwealth Office from the Committee Specialist

 

 

The Foreign Affairs Committee has considered the Government's response to its Report "Global Security: Japan and Korea" (Cm 7534, January 2009). The Committee would like to receive further follow-up information from the FCO on eight matters, as follows:

 

1. The Committee felt that the Government provided insufficient information in response to its request in its recommendation 8 for the Government's assessment of US policy regarding East Asian regional security forums, especially as regards prospects for the further institutionalisation of the Six-Party Talks framework. The Committee would like to ask the Government again to provide such an assessment, in particular following Secretary of State Clinton's recent visit to the region and President Obama's appointment of Stephen Bosworth as his Special Representative for North Korea Policy.

 

2. Further to the Committee's recommendation 14 and the Government's response, the Committee would like to request a further update on the Government's assessment of North Korea's ballistic missile programme, in light of Pyongyang's announcement that it plans to carry out a satellite launch in the first week of April.

 

3. Further to the Committee's recommendation 17 and the Government's response, the Committee would like to request an update on the consideration which the Department for International Development is giving to the possibility of a UK contribution to the World Food Programme appeal for North Korea.

 

4. In its response to the Committee's recommendation 18, the Government said that it would raise the issue of China's treatment of North Korean emigrants during China's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process in February 2009. The Committee would like to know whether the Government did so. The summary of the process which is included in the Report of the UPR Working Group (A/HRC/WG.6/4/L.11, 11 February 2009) does not mention the issue as one which was raised by the UK delegation.

 

5. Further to the Government's response to the Committee's recommendation 28, the Committee would like an update on the planned award of two Chevening Scholarships to North Koreans in 2009.

 

6. Further to the Government's response to the Committee's recommendation 35, the Committee would like to know whether UKTI is retaining South Korea as an "opportunity market" in the environment sector for the new financial year (2009‑10).

 

7. Further to the Government's response to the Committee's recommendation 36, the Committee would like an update on DFID's consideration of the possibility of concluding a Memorandum of Understanding with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on development collaboration.

 

8. The Committee felt that the Government did not respond adequately to the part of recommendation 47 in which the Committee recommended that the FCO and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform should increase the ability of the Embassy in Seoul to support British business opportunities in South Korea. The Committee would like to press the Government for a response to this recommendation.

 

The Committee would be grateful for a response by 20 April.

 

16 March 2009