In recent months, South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi have separately called for the creation of a formal, governmental Northeast Asia Security Forum, to bring key regional states together to discuss common security interests and concerns. Russian President Boris Yeltsin has echoed these calls. Moscow has long been offended at being left out of the Four-Party Talks (among the two Koreas, the United States and China), believing that Russia should also have a seat at this table. Canadians and Mongolians also periodically call for a broader-based dialogue including their nations as well.

Nonetheless, the chances of a Northeast Asian Security Forum being established any time soon appear slim. The U.S., while occasionally offering token support, has displayed little real enthusiasm. The Chinese have been even less supportive, dismissing such proposals as "premature." Beijing cites North Korean reluctance to participate as a primary reason, although one also suspects a lack of Chinese eagerness to involve Japan more intimately in regional security affairs. For its part, North Korea continues to reject all such proposals out of hand.

As a result, the only venue for official dialogue on Northeast Asia security issues, beyond the narrowly-focused (and largely unsuccessful) Four-Party Talks, remains the ASEAN Regional Forum, which brings the foreign ministers of 21 Asia-Pacific nations (plus the European Union) together for one day of security discussions each summer. The ARF agenda is driven by its Southeast Asian hosts, however, and Northeast Asian issues receive scant attention.