WASHINGTON, June, 27 - The Korean Sejong Institute, together with a number of Korean non-governmental organizations, will host a second international planning meeting in Seoul July 16-17 to prepare the way for the Community of Democracies Non-Governmental Forum. The Community of Democracies Conference, scheduled for November 10-12, 2002 will bring to Seoul officials of democracies and democracy advocates from all over the world to consider strengthening democracy around the world and enhancing the bonds between democratic nations. The Seoul gathering will be the second Community of Democracies Conference. The first was held in Warsaw, Poland in June 2000. As was the case in Warsaw, the Non-Governmental Forum will be held in parallel to a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of some 100 democracies from all regions of the world.

Invited to the July Seoul planning meeting are representatives of the independent sector from the ten convening countries of the Community. Besides Korea, they are the United States, India, the Czech Republic, Poland, Chile, Mexico, South Africa, Mali and Portugal.

Attending for the United States will be Walter Raymond Jr., of the Council for a Community of Democracies and chair of the American coordinating group, Jennifer Windsor of Freedom House, and Bobby Herman of the Open Society Institute. The agenda for the Forum’s planning meeting will identify the some 300 participants to be invited to the Forum, discuss the program and select of speakers and panelists for the Conference.

Topics for the Forum’s scheduled roundtables include Strengthening Political Party Systems, Markets and Democratic Governance, Corruption and Democracy, Education for Democracy, Democracy, Freedom of Association and the Protection of NGOs, Local Government and Democracy, Creating Civil Society in Closed Societies and the Media and Democracy. Welcoming the delegations to the two-day planning session will be the President of the Sejong Institute, Jong-Chun Baek.