hankyoreh

By Jung Dae-hwa, Busan University emeritus professor

I have a wish list of things concerning peace on the Korean Peninsula that I hope President Park Geun-hye will talk about when she meets US president Barack Obama this May.

First among them is the need to begin dialogue toward nuclear non-proliferation - premised on the suspension of all North Korean nuclear tests and missile launches that was mentioned by Obama - and to craft an “action for action” strategy that aims to achieve both denuclearization and a peace regime on the Korean peninsula. To date, the US has adopted a hard-line approach that prioritizes its own interests, but its demands that North Korea give up its nuclear program ahead of dialogue have been both unrealistic and unsuccessful.

The time has come to reconsider those measures and effect bold changes in thinking and policy. Denuclearization should be the ultimate goal, the final stage in a three-stage process that begins with a declaration of an end to the Korean War and continues on the building of a peace regime. This latter concept encompasses things like a peace agreement to replace the armistice and diplomatic relations between Pyongyang and Washington, as well as the establishment of a multilateral security regime for the peninsula. It includes opposition to war and the uninterrupted continuation of humanitarian aid - even if South Korea is doing it all by itself. Non-economic cooperation would depend on what headway is made in the inter-Korea trust-building process. Hopefully, this powerful concept of autonomy will be communicated to US Secretary of State John Kerry when he visits South Korea next month.

My detailed wish list is as follows:

1. Actively pushing for reunions between separated families as a humanitarian gesture during Park’s term. This should not be just an “event,” but real reunions, where the more elderly people are allowed to choose where they would like to live.

2. Continuing to provide humanitarian aid to North Korean children.

3. Expanding the range of cooperative zones similar to the Kaesong Industrial Complex.

4. Immediately reopening the Mt. Kumgang tourism venture.

5. Declaring an end to the Korean War and making a priority of “human-level reunification” between North and South Koreas, reflecting the intensely political nature of the unification issue. More specifically, people should be allowed to come and go between North and South, as with the “three links” between mainland China and Taiwan.

6. Favoring the diplomatic measures outlined above over the use of armed force. This includes encouraging North Korea to return to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and resuming the six-party talks on the nuclear issue. History has shown that military solutions have been no solutions at all for issues between North and South.

7. The road map for reunification has already been laid out perfectly in the various agreements and joint declarations between North and South and between Pyongyang and Washington. All that remains is to put them into action.

First of all, South Korea needs to take the initiative and encourage the US to take action. The world-renowned scholar of peace Johan Galtung has said that we should use the word “cooperation” rather than “unification.” He also said that most of the world’s conflicts, even the most serious, have been resolved within forty years, and that the reason the problems between the Koreas have not been, despite 68 years of division, is because of all the hard-liners, especially in the South. The moderates need to come to the fore.

When even Obama is talking about pursuing dialogue, the South Korean conservatives calling for the use of nuclear weapons against North Korea are real hard-liners. Just who are these people, though? Some of them are paranoid pro-Japanese holdovers who are terrified of North Korean bogeymen. Some are actual victims of North Korea, while others come the right-wing period, spewing invective against Pyongyang every chance they get. There are also religious groups and Cold War-era vested interests opposed to reunification. If the North Korean regime is brought by force, China will simply absorb the country. Over this long road, political theorists have taught that if we cannot isolate or segregate them, then we will have to neutralize them, even co-opting them if necessary.

That is the analysis of today’s rational experts on North Korea. It is said that if North and South Korea are reunited, the unified country will rank in the world’s top three economies by 2050. And if Park can, as former deputy Prime Minister Han Wan-sang put it, “convert the South Korean armistice into a peace agreement,” she would likely win herself a Nobel Peace Prize.

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