Background   It is noteworthy that common international norms are being increasingly applied, with the rapid development of globalization pushing the world economy toward standardization, and that the formation of blocs such as the EU, NAFTA, and ASEAN is being pursued for collective interest based on their regional identities.   -   While the recent active discussions on the necessity of economic cooperation among North East Asian countries, the need for develop specified logic in the agricultural sector is being greatly emphasized in order to improve regional agriculture in accordance with its geographical characteristics.   The expansion of free trade is expected to escalate competition in the North East Asia region, because Korea, Japan, and China have adopted similar production pattern, called asian type small rice farming, which has been influenced by the Monsoon climate in the region for many centuries, and because of similar dietary habits based on rice as a staple food.   -   There is a great need to find ways to co-survive by cooperating and sharing resources, based on the tripartite regional characteristics of Korea, China, and Japan, comprising the North East Asian region. In addition strategies must be found to minimize damage in the region as a whole, and to maximize benefits in the process of discussing opening markets and inheriting and developing a regional culture based on rice.   In particular, Korea Rural Economic Institute(KREI), Institute of Agricultural Economics, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science(IAE/CAAS), Japans Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (PRIMAFF), as policy research institutes can perform essential roles in cooperating in research on agricultural policies of Korea, China, and Japan, as well as improving agriculture and rural communities in the North East Asian region in the near future. The institutes assume responsibilities for introducing policies, and evaluating them in their respective agricultural sectors.   -   Need for the exchange of data and information and its statistical accumulation in order to identify areas of cooperating in WTO/DDA agricultural negotiations through joint studies of the agricultural sectors of Korea, China, and Japan, and to establish agricultural cooperation systems to share the benefits of specialization.