Park Jung-won, Ph.D. in law from the London School of Economics (LSE), is a professor of international law at Dankook University.
From mediator to negotiator
By Park Jung-won
President Moon Jae-in has been acting as a “mediator” in the conflict over the issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula between the United States and North Korea, despite doubts as to whether he is in a position to play this role by any general internationally recognized standard.
South Korea, far from being a neutral party to the conflict, is directly exposed to the North's nuclear threat, and as such should not act as a mere broker in these negotiations. Moon should transform his country's role to that of negotiator, as direct participation is the most appropriate approach to achieve his goals.
Mediation is considered one of the most effective mechanisms for the peaceful resolution of international disputes, as provided in Article 33 (1) in the U.N. Charter. A mediator plays a crucial role in guiding negotiations between contending parties by actively joining the negotiation process, because disputants rely on the trust and influential power flowing from the mediator.
This makes the role of mediator different from that of merely offering the good offices of a neutral third party to the disputants. The more political leverage the mediator possesses, the greater the likelihood of resolution of the dispute. Successful resolutions in the peace talks in 1978 between Egypt and Israel and in the Dayton Peace Agreement in 1995 among parties from the former Yugoslavia were both made possible by the U.S.'s influential status as a mediator.
Even if Moon could be considered a mediator, his efforts seem to have only been relevant up to the adoption of the Panmunjeom Declaration between Moon and North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un and the Singapore Joint Statement between Kim and former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2018. Unfortunately, these efforts have not led to any meaningful denuclearization by North Korea. Rather, the situation has worsened after the failure of the North Korea-U.S. summit in Hanoi in 2019, since which North Korea has ignored and even humiliated Moon, exposing his inefficacy as a reliable mediator.
In the wake of this failure, the joint statement made by the South Korean and U.S. presidents on May 22 after their summit marks a significant turning point, signaling a substantial contextual change with regard to the issue of denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula.
The two heads of state reaffirmed both countries' commitment to the shared values of democratic norms, human rights and international law-based regional stability while confirming that the issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula will be dealt with by diplomatic means based on existing inter-Korean and U.S.-North Korean agreements.
The greatest achievement of the summit appears to be that previous controversies which had cleaved and polarized South Korean society, including Seoul's ambiguous triangulation between the U.S. and China, have been to a large extent removed.
Additionally, considering that North Korea has interpreted the phrase “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” to mean the removal of the U.S. nuclear umbrella to defend South Korea and the withdrawal of U.S. armed forces stationed in South Korea, it is very significant that South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong clarified the meaning of the phrase.
He affirmed before South Korea's legislature on May 28 that the phrase “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” is based on the 1991 Joint Declaration of the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, implying that it means North Korea must denuclearize in substance, as South Korea does not possess nuclear weapons.
As stances have been made clearer since the May 22 summit, common sense dictates that the Moon administration should return to acting as a direct party to the dispute on the North Korean issue rather than as a mediator, acknowledging that playing the role of mediator will not contribute to any tangible results at this stage. An immutable truth amid the deterioration of the North Korea issue is that South Korea has been and will continue to be an immediate target exposed to direct nuclear threat from the North.
The raison detre of any democratic state lies in the protection of lives, freedom and property for its people, the absence of which delegitimizes its existence. The Moon administration should resist any temptation to create another political stunt with North Korea in the name of “peace.” Given its tough neighborhood, it is understandable that South Korea has been tiptoeing around the two superpowers, the U.S. and China. South Korea's troubled modern history has made “international politics” a subject that its citizens follow compulsively.
However, an excessively submissive posture toward Kim's North Korean regime which plays down South Korea's identity, as symbolized by liberal democracy, human rights and the rule of law, will no longer be convincing in the eyes of the proud South Korean people. To advance his country's interests, it is time for Moon to shed the delusion of playing the role of mediator and adopt that of a negotiator.
Park Jung-won (park_jungwon@hotmail.com), Ph.D. at the London School of Economics (LSE), is professor of international law at Dankook University.