[Editorial] Think carefully about the real path to peace in Northeast Asia

Posted on : 2015-05-19 16:55 KST Modified on : 2015-05-19 16:55 KST
 May 18. (pool photo)
May 18. (pool photo)

The US Secretary of State and South Korean Foreign Minister met in Seoul on May 18, but they did not offer any practical measures for resolving the problem of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs. Instead, they underscored a hard-line stance toward North Korea that is likely to further exacerbate tensions on the Korean Peninsula. US Secretary of State John Kerry did not show any improvement in his attitude toward Japan’s historical issues, either.

During a press conference following the bilateral meeting, John Kerry said that there must not be dialogue for dialogue’s sake and called on the leadership of North Korea to demonstrate their sincerity. This implies that the US will only allow the six-party talks to resume if North Korea moves first to denuclearize.

These remarks conflict with a consensus that has formed recently among the countries participating in the six-party talks about the need for exploratory dialogue with North Korea.

Aside from increasing cooperation between the US and South Korea in response to North Korea’s provocative attitude, this kind of hard-line attitude could make the nuclear problem worse and needlessly raise tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Referring to North Korea‘s test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) and human rights violations including public executions, Kerry said that more pressure must be placed on North Korea. This is the toughest expression of the strategy of squeezing North Korea that has been made to date.

Without sending a clear message to Japan about historical issues, Kerry urged both Japan and South Korea to exercise “restraint, and continue to engage in a direct dialogue towards a mutually acceptable resolution.”

While Kerry noted that “the position of the Abe government is to uphold the Kono and the Murayama statements,” the neutral attitude that he adopted effectively put him on Japan’s side. At the same time, he emphasized that “[c]onstructive relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea, our most important allies in East Asia, are critical.” This kind of attitude is exactly what the Abe administration is looking for as it tries to dodge responsibility for Japan’s historical problems.

The US’s hard-line stance toward North Korea and its cordial attitude toward Japan were also confirmed in the summit between US President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the revision to the two countries’ defense cooperation guidelines at the end of April.

The two countries are pushing for integration by military force on the pretext of the threat posed by China and North Korea and they are putting pressure on South Korea to participate more actively in trilateral security cooperation with them.

Along the way, momentum has slowed to tackle issues related to North Korea such as its nuclear program through dialogue.

The South Korean government must not give in to this pressure from the US. Doing so would mean forgetting the issues of the past, make it even harder to address the issues of North Korea’s nuclear weapon and missile program, and intensify the confrontational relationships forming in Northeast Asia.

The meeting between the foreign ministers also functioned as a preliminary round to the US-South Korea summit that is scheduled for next month when President Park travels to Washington. If a similar agenda is going to be covered in the summit, there is little reason to hold it.

The South Korean government needs to think carefully about what needs to be done to resolve urgent issues and to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia.

 

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

 

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