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COPYRIGHT 2007 Professors World Peace Academy
This paper analyzes the efforts made by the international community for the independence and unification of Korea, the role of the United Nations in the process, and the prospects for Korean unification. Close attention is given to the result of the first political conference on Korean unification held in Geneva from April-June 1954, an event whose importance should not be underestimated despite the passage of time. This paper affirms that the conclusion of a peace treaty ending the Korean Armistice will legally restore peace to Korea from a state of war. The next step would be to work toward the peaceful unification of Korea in accordance with longstanding U.N. principles based upon the genuine self-determination by the Korean people.
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this paper is to focus on the efforts made by the international community for the independence and unification of Korea, the role of the United Nations in the process and the prospects for Korean unification in view of China's rise. In particular, close attention will be paid to the result of the first political conference on Korean unification held in Geneva from April 26-June 15, 1954, an event whose importance should not be underestimated despite the passage of time.
At the outset, reference must be made to the outcome of the current Six Party Talks on North Korean nuclear disarmament and its relevance to our subject in hand. Under the agreement reached on February 13, 2007, North Korea would receive initial energy assistance equal to 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil from South Korea for "shutting down" and sealing the main nuclear reactor and related facilities at Yongbyon within 60 days, to be confirmed by international inspectors from the IAEA. For irreversibly disabling the reactor and declaring all nuclear programs, North Korea will eventually receive another 950,000 tons of heavy fuel oil.
There are some misgivings about the future of the February 13 agreement. The nuclear program is the single negotiating card North Korea has in its hands. Therefore, success or failure will largely depend on how willing the United States is to have a "give and take" attitude for future negotiations. On the other hand, it will be recalled that North Korea has made it clear that it is one thing to dismantle its nuclear facilities and another to discard the nuclear weapons it already has, which experts estimate to be six or seven.
In the past, North Korea has also sidestepped previous agreements, allegedly running a uranium-based weapons program even as it froze a plutonium based one, which sparked the most recent nuclear crisis in late 2002. At any rate, the recent six-nation agreement provides that some of the six nations, the belligerents in the Korean War, will hold a separate forum on negotiations for a permanent peace settlement to replace the 1953 Armistice Agreement that temporarily ended the Korean War. However, without a prior settlement of the North Korean nuclear disarmament issue, it will be impossible to establish a permanent peace in the Korean peninsula.
THE STATE...
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