World Affairs
Peace in Korean Peninsula – Hurdles in the way
North Korean President Kim
Jong-un’s initiative, popularly came
to be called as Olympic diplomacy,
was a big success. At least
temporarily, it changed the
atmosphere of tension and set in
motion series of moves for dialogue
in the Korean peninsula. These
moves roused the feelings and
yearnings for peace and oneness
strong among the people in both
parts of Korea. They also have
pushed US into a defensive and
compelled it to agree for a dialogue
with North Korea.
The North Korean President
Kim Jong-un and the South Korean
President Moon Jae-in met in an
inter Korean Summit in a most
cordial atmosphere. Mr.Kim wrote
in the Guest House Book, “A new
history starts now. An age of peace
starts from the starting point of
history”. Both walked into South
Korea holding hands. In a private
talk, Mr.Kim told to Mr. Moon that
he came to the Summit to end the
history of conflict. They watched a
musical performance, held hands
as they watched a montage of
photos from their Summit set to a
Korean pop song that included the
words “BE A F AMILY AGAIN”.
The Joint Declaration released
by them promised to fully
implement all existing agreements
and declarations; establish a joint
liaison office; encourage more
active co-operation, exchanges,
visits and contacts; jointly
participate in international sports
events; endeavour to swiftly
resolve the humanitarian issues;
completely cease all hostilities in
every domain including land, sea
and air; to transform the De-
militarised zone into a peace zone;
practical scheme to transform the
current Northern Limit Line in the
West Sea into a maritime zone; hold
June - 2018
frequent defence ministerial and
working level meetings in a bid to
solve military issues immediately;
strictly adhere to a non-aggression
pact that precludes the use of force
against each other; carry out
disarmament in a phased manner;
pursue trilateral meetings involving
the US or quadric-lateral meetings
involving the US and China with a
view to declaring an end to the war
and pursue the goal of reeling,
through complete denucleari-
sation, a nuclear-free Peninsula.
Thus the Joint Declaration reflects
the genuine urges and aspirations
of the people on both sides to put
an end to the conflict once forever
and usher on the road of peace,
unity and all round progress.
Left to themselves, the leaders
of both countries are capable of
pursuing the dialogue process
meaningfully. They can expect
overwhelming support from their
people if they culminate the talks
with ending the conflict. But the
subservient relationship of South
Korean ruling classes with US;
28500-strength US military base in
South Korea and massive and
sophisticated weapon systems
installed by US in and around
Korea place the South Korean
leaders in an extremely weak and
uncertain position to act with
initiative and independently. The
leaders of North Korea too are
aware of this reality. They also
know that peace and security in the
Korean peninsula cannot be
visualised or sustained without
freeing it from the US politics of
intervention and domination. So,
they are serious about having a
dialogue with US.
North Korea’s peace offensive
and the kind of favourable
response it received in the Korean
peninsula as well as the world have
left the US with no alternative but
to welcome the dialogue process
and agree to sit with the North
Korean leader for talks. June 12 th
2018 is decided for the talks.
But the US leaders began to
reveal their bad intentions even
before the commencement of US
– North Korea talks. Mr. Trump and
his senior Officials have circulated
the view that a tough US policy
towards North Korea, along with its
pressure on China drove North
Korea to the negotiating table.
North Korea rightly saw in it a
“dangerous attempt on the part of
US to ruin a budding detente after
North and South leaders Summit.”
and a “deliberate attempt provoke
the DPRK (North Korea) at a time
when the situation was moving
towards peace and reconciliation.”
North Korea has declared that
it is for “a complete denucleari-
sation, a nuclear – free Korean
peninsula”. It expressed the wish
that the concerned parties must
take “phased and synchronised”
measures to realise denucleari-
sation and lasting peace in the
Korean peninsula.
But the US leaders have a
basically different approach. The
US Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo said that North Korea must
take “irreversible steps towards
shutting its nuclear weapons
programme in any deal with US
President Donald Trump.” “Again,
the US National Security Advisor
John Bolton said, “we have very
much in mind the Libyan model
from 2003, 2004.” These state-
ments infuriated North Korea. On
May 16 th 2018, it made clear that
“If the US is trying to drive us into a
corner to force our unilateral
abandonment, we are no longer
interested in such dialogue and
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