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COPYRIGHT 2007 Professors World Peace Academy
Has the time finally come for peace to break out on the Korean Peninsula? Is the call for a Korea peace regime sincere or is it a "red herring" to distract us from key objectives? Given U.S. national interests, what is America's role?
In September 2005, NE Asian governments and the United States (the "Six Parties" (1)) called on the "directly related parties" to "negotiate a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula at an appropriate separate forum." (2) Two months later, the presidents of South Korea (ROK) and the United States agreed on the importance of "... moving from the current armistice mechanism to a peace mechanism...." (3) In August 2007, Pyongyang and Seoul agreed to conduct a second inter-Korea summit meeting in October "... to discuss the issue of establishing a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula and ways to end North Korea's nuclear programs." (4)
Prestigious organizations and scholars have dedicated impressive efforts to examining concepts for a Korea peace regime. I share this goal. Easing North Korea's stated sense of vulnerability to U.S. aggression and denuclearizing North Korea seem to be their major focus. But is this enough to end the Korean War and assure peace on the Korean Peninsula?
As an old Korea hand, I cannot get one troublesome fact out of my head: Two Korean governments claim the entire Korean Peninsula as their legitimate territory. To unify the Peninsula under one Korean government, they and their allies have killed millions. North Korea's emergence as a nuclear weapons state increases the danger. These competing claims and this history constitute a significant source of instability. Has the time not come to focus on the fundamental challenge to peace on the Korean Peninsula?
This challenge is the unresolved, 60 year-old "Korea question," which to date could be summarized as, "What Korean government shall govern the Korean people."
The Korea question emerged in 1947 as the United Nations struggled with ways to end Korean division after liberation in August 1945. Seeing the answer in zero-sum terms, North Korea invaded South Korea in June 1950 to unify the Peninsula, prompting the multinational Korean War. The 1953 Korean War Armistice Agreement recommends "... the peaceful settlement of the Korean question...." It further stipulates that...
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