[Column] Let’s bring peace to Korean Peninsula before armistice regime turns 70

Posted on : 2021-08-02 09:58 KST Modified on : 2021-08-02 09:58 KST
In the future, negotiations for denuclearization and a peace regime should begin simultaneously or at least peace agreement talks first to encourage denuclearization
Cheong Wook-Sik
Cheong Wook-Sik


By Cheong Wook-Sik, director of the Hankyoreh Peace Institute and director of the Peace Network

The Korean Armistice Agreement was signed 68 years ago. The agreement calls for high-level talks within three months of the signing of the agreement to resolve issues on the Korean Peninsula peacefully.

Nearly 70 years later, the beginning of negotiations to replace the armistice with a peace agreement has yet to come. The concerned parties reached the negotiating table for the peace agreement several times, but they never succeeded in bridging their differences over who's to sign such document and whether United States Forces Korea or atomic bombs have a place on the Korean Peninsula.

As a result, the temporary ceasefire agreement has become a permanent regime over the past 68 years.

The situation has not stopped South Korea from achieving democratization or an economic boom. However, it is evident that the reality of divided Korea, with each side remaining antagonistic to the other, poses limits to what South Korea can achieve in the realms of democracy and economic prosperity.

North Korea has been using its nuclear capabilities as diplomatic leverage to pursue a peace regime but hasn't been successful.

The US and China, on the other hand, approach the Korean Peninsula issue only from the standpoint of strategic competition.

It's not just the two Koreas that come under the shadow of war in the armistice regime. South Korea is an ally of the US and North Korea is an ally of China.

As strategic competition between the US and China intensifies, the South Korea-US alliance and the North Korea-China alliance have both become more entangled.

This added pressure poses a serious. An armed conflict between the US and China outside the Korean Peninsula can easily bring the two Koreas into the dispute through entanglement. This makes the parallel push for denuclearization and establishing a peace regime necessary to prevent the two Koreas from getting caught up in unwanted wars.

Now is the time to seek a transition to a peace regime, before the contradiction of the armistice regime explodes tragically. At the root of the North Korean nuclear issue is the armistice regime. The only way forward is establishing a peace regime that provides an impetus for denuclearization.

There already have been multiple negotiations for denuclearization, yet none has come to fruition. One can cite numerous reasons for past failures, but the main reason is that the past talks for a peace agreement didn't go hand in hand with denuclearization. In the future, negotiations for denuclearization and a peace regime should begin simultaneously or at least peace agreement talks first to encourage denuclearization.

Only two years remain until the 70th anniversary of the armistice. It's unclear whether a peace agreement will be reached anytime soon. We should at least aim to reach a peace agreement by July 27, 2023.

At the moment, there's an international "Korea Peace Appeal" going on to collect signatures to push for a peace treaty by 2023. I ask you to join this signature campaign to gather our will for a peace agreement. You can sign the appeal online at endthekoreanwar.net.

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]

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