South Korean President Park Geun-hye's upcoming visit to Washington is a good opportunity to discuss ways to develop her initiative for peace in Northeast Asia, a former White House official said Friday.

Evan Medeiros, who until recently served as senior director for Asia at the White House's National Security Council, made the remark during a security seminar, praising Park's Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative (NAPCI) as creative.

"I have a very positive view on NAPCI. I think it's very interesting, it's very creative," Medeiros said. "I appreciate the fact that the ROK (South Korea) took the initiative. It's something that we need to discuss in more detail."

The vision is aimed at promoting peace by building trust in a step-by-step manner. It calls for countries in the region to start with softer, nonpolitical issues, such as environmental issues and disaster relief, to foster trust before expanding cooperation to tackling serious political and security matters.

Northeast Asia has long been plagued by historical and territorial rows in addition to military tensions stemming from North Korean provocations, despite deep economic interdependence among the countries in the region. Japan remains at odds with its two key neighbors, South Korea and China, over its militaristic past and territorial claims.

Park calls the situation the "Asia paradox."

The NAPCI has been one of Park's trademark security policies, along with the Korean Peninsula trust process that calls for similar step-by-step measures to build trust between the two Koreas.

Medeiros said there are still questions about the initiative, such as how it is different from the six-party talks and whether it will undercut some of the current structures in the de-facto regional security architecture.

"I think that President Park's visit is the perfect opportunity to discuss some of these issues," he said. (Yonhap)