On January 14, the Sejong Institute held the first Roundtable in 2014, under the title “Current Issues and Challenges in Northeast Asia,” with the Hungarian MFA delegation, led by Mr. Adam Szestay, Director General of the Strategic Planning Department. The discussion was led by Dr. Eunsook Chung and attended by President Song and the Sejong Institute’s research fellows.
 
The Roundtable was consisted of three sessions followed by Q&A, i) Regional Security Issues & Challenges (the U.S. strategic presence in the region, the China-US Relations, the ROK-US Relations, the ROK-China Relations, the Inter-Korean Relations, etc.); ii) Territorial Disputes in Northeast Asia (latest development of the ADIZ announcements, background and prospects for the territorial disputes between China and Japan); iii) the ROK-US Relations (assessment of the EU-ROK FTA, world economic and trade trends from the Korean point of view, evaluation of TPP and other multilateral free trade initiatives, etc.). Each session was presented by Dr. Sang-hyun Lee, Director of the Security Strategy Studies Department, Dr. Tai Hwan Lee, Director of the Regional Studies Department, and Dr. Ki-soo Kim from the International Political Economy Department.
 
The participants were able to exchange their own views despite their distinctive and particular backgrounds. Although the topic of the roundtable was particularly on Northeast Asia, both sides of the participants promoted mutual understandings on issues related to Europe and Northeast Asia, and South Korea and Hungary. The participants had an interactive discussion as they genuinely shared stereoscopic opinions on changes in security cooperation among the European countries, and issues over regime transitions and the Inter-Korean Relations, despite their individual orientation and characteristics.