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On August 30, 2018, the Northeast Asian History Foundation invited twenty-four experts on Korean and Chinese history, Northeast Asia, or international politics to attend the "Korea-China Historical Forum for Northeast Asian Peace." The purpose of hosting the forum was to diagnose the gradually diversifying, increasing factors of conflict and cooperation between Korea and China since establishing diplomatic relations and ultimately create an academic foundation for building a peaceful Northeast Asian community.

Just as the world was entering the post-Cold War era, diplomatic relations was established between Korea and China on August 24, 1992, which greatly contributed to bringing peace and stability to Northeast Asia. Within a short period of time since establishing diplomatic relations, ties between Korea and China have grown from being friendly neighbors to total cooperative partners to strategic partners. Their bilateral human and material exchange has expanded rapidly at a pace almost unheard of in world history. Nevertheless, after twenty years of maintaining diplomatic relations, the two countries are experiencing friction and discord with one another, caused not only by economic factors, but due to historical and territorial conflicts in Northeast Asia that have been growing into conflicts over security and international relations.

Throughout his entire term as prime minister, Koizumi Junichiro incited nationalistic sentiments by pushing ahead with visiting the controversial Yasukuni Shrine. His successor Abe Shinzo took up the baton in 2012 and has been driving Japanese politics and society toward the conservative right side. Also in 2012, the conflict deepened between China and Japan surrounding sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, followed by intense territorial conflicts in the South China Sea between China and several Southeast Asian countries. Such developments put on the back burner discussions about forming an East Asian community and gave rise to exclusive nationalism. To make matters worse, North Korea carried out a series of nuclear tests, the third in February 2013 and the fourth and fifth in January and September of 2016, which prompted the THAAD missile system to be installed in South Korea and brought drastic change to South Korea-China relations. The vitriolic articles about South Korea some Chinese media outlets distributed were more than enough to foment anti-Korean sentiments in China. In response, the South Korean society has been turning anti-Chinese as well, a sentiment previously sparked by China's Northeast Project that grew into distrust toward China for taking punitive economic measures against South Korea over the THAAD system's installation.

Northeast Asia including the Korean peninsula is now stepping into a time of historical transition. From the spring to summer of 2018, historical summits took place between the two Koreas, the United States, and China and the third inter-Korean summit is scheduled to be held soon in the fall. The leaders of the two Koreas, the United States, and China are working together to find an exit to the North Korean nuclear issue and establish a framework of peace on the Korean peninsula.

In his welcoming speech at the forum, NAHF President Kim Do-hyung asked Korean and Chinese scholars of history and political science to academically consider factors leading to cooperation or conflict between Korea and China in this time of historical transition. He further offered to support a Korea-China Historical Forum aimed at enriching programs helpful to increasing the mutual benefits to be reaped from the bilateral strategic partnership. The two rather unconventional things about the forum is that two subcommittees respectively specializing in history and international politics will run joint meetings and that the forum will cover research topics related

The recent meeting's overarching theme was "Korea-China Relations for Sharing Historical Perceptions and Building a Northeast Asian Peace Community." Through his paper "The Roots of Nationalistic Historical Perceptions and Remaining Challenges," Professor Jeon In-gap of Sogang University heading the forum's Korean history subcommittee described that Korea has divided views about China, regarding it as a platform for Korea's survival on the one hand while keeping an eye on it as a main culprit of historical, cultural, territorial conflicts. As an alternative, Professor Jeon suggested that both countries need to reject the nationalist paradigm. Professor Wang Yuanzhou (王元周) of Peking University heading the forum's Chinese history subcommittee gave a presentation on "The Formation of Modern Nationalism and Historical Issues." Regarding the reason Korea and China perceive and interpret history differently, Professor Wang pointed out that it was due to placing excessive weight on history and emphasizing political meanings derived from a framework of national history, influenced by cultural and historical nationalism. Considering the manifold aspects of history's practical role, Professor Wang suggested the need to examine and analyze in-depth the complicated relationship between building modern nationalism and forming historical perceptions.

Professor Lee Hee-ok of Sungkyunkwan University heading the forum's Korean subcommittee on international relations gave a keynote speech on "The Korean Peninsula, China, and a Northeast Asian Peace Framework." Through the speech, Professor Lee outlined the new attempts made in Chinese diplomacy, the constants and changes in China's policy toward the Korean peninsula, his assessment of the recent North Korea-China summit, and issues in South Korea-China relations. He then went over the potential issues North Korea could face upon opening up and entering international society. In response, Research fellow Li Chengri (李成日) of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences gave a presentation on "The Makeup of and Changes in North Korea-China Post-Cold War Relations." Research fellow Li explained the changes that occurred over time to theories on the uniqueness, strategies, subtleties, and different purposes in China's relationship with North Korea. Research fellow Li then pointed out how the structural elements and their meaning in the traditional friendship between China and North Korea changed since the end of the Cold War.

Near the end of the forum, NAHF President Kim Do-hyung reiterated the importance of refraining from getting muddled by nationalism as Korea and China further develop their strategic partnership to build a peace mechanism in Northeast Asia at a time of historical transition, especially after having been through a history of resistance, conflict, and adversarial international relations over the postwar years and the Cold War.