[Column] Is the Korean peninsula moving toward reunification?

Posted on : 2013-08-12 12:04 KST Modified on : 2013-08-12 12:04 KST
US Congress recently passed a significant resolution, but many serious issues still remain

By Baik Tae-ung, Hawaii Law School professor

The US Congress recently passed a resolution that holds great significance for the future of the Korean Peninsula. On the 60th anniversary of the armistice that ended the combat phase of the Korean War, the Senate and House of Representatives affirmed their support for Korean peace and reunification. This is welcome news - a bit of a formality, to be sure, but meaningful as a reaffirmation of explicit congressional support for unification. It’s also inspiring to hear that a major contribution to the resolution came from a Korean-American aide to Rep. Charles Rangel.

China has also expressed its support. Back in June, it signed on to a joint statement on a vision for the future with South Korea in which it backed improving inter-Korean relations through dialogue and trust, with the ultimate goal of a realizing the Korean people’s longstanding dream of a unified peninsula. The administration in Seoul seems to believe that South Korea needs to play a key role in resolving issues that affect the peninsula, and that the major powers recognize this. It’s great to see.

But have those neighboring powers really started coming around on Korean reunification? The title of the US resolution was “Encouraging peace and reunification on the Korean Peninsula,” which seems forward-thinking enough. But its content is focused more on the same old calls for denuclearization. The gist of it is that North Korea needs to abide by international law and halt its nuclear weapons program, denuclearizing completely and beginning dialogue toward peace and reunification. As far as ideas for reunification go, it goes no farther than to affirm it as South Korea’s ultimate goal. China is also focused more on maintaining the status quo. By stating the three principles on Korean Peninsula issues to be denuclearization, peace/stability, and dialogue/negotiation, it put the nuclear issue front and center. Peace and stability are recognized as the major issues in the region, but unification is left as something for us Koreans to contend with on our own.

Both the US and China remain skeptical of the chances for unification. Former Senator Richard Lugar has said that if unification ever appears likely to become a reality, there is a good chance Beijing will intervene in peninsular matters out of a “Northeastern Project” mentality. He was also instrumental in drafting a report to the Senate that made similar predictions. China, the report said, has major economic interests in North Korea in terms of trade and mineral resources, and believes that part of the peninsula is its own territory. If South and North ever appear poised for unification, China would likely step in and try to control things - or prevent unification from happening at all. One of the reasons the US has been strongly considering Seoul’s request to again postpone the transfer of wartime operational control to South Korea in 2015 is because it believes that as a country with a say in peninsular issues, it should be a factor in any changes to the situation.

Will unification eventually happen? On one side, we see a lot of people who say it could happen sooner than later, and that now is a perfect chance. But there is also no shortage of pessimists. Basic interactions between South and North have ground to a halt amid floundering negotiations on the resuming of operations at the Kaesong Industrial Complex and an endless delay in the resumption of tourism at Mt. Keumgang. Any real discussions of peace and unification still appear a long way off. Back when Germany was divided, some people said it would be better to maintain the division rather than attempting a costly unification. The country’s recent prosperity and development post-unification show clearly how unfounded those worries were.

Sixty years of division is long enough for a Korean nation that has had to live with the costs of maintaining that system and the constant threat of (possibly nuclear) war. South Korea has the means to steer the process. Seoul needs to do more than just manage things in their current divided state - it also needs to set a timetable for eventually ending that division. It‘s not easy to read Pyongyang’s behavior, or to lure it onto the path of peace and unity. But we can’t stop it from happening either.

 

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

 

button that move to original korean article (클릭시 원문으로 이동하는 버튼)

Most viewed articles