Pyongyang Leaders Should Initiate Peace Process
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The 2007 South-North Korean summit should serve as a catalyst for implementing a multilateral “peace process” on the Korean Peninsula toward peaceful reunification of the two Koreas, former Unification Minister Lim Dong-won said.
Lim, 73, who was a top aide for intelligence and unification affairs for former President Kim Dae-jung, said the first step toward a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula is a declaration of the end of the Korean War and the leaders of South and North Korea should take the initiative to that end.
Lim, head of the state-run think tank Sejong Institute, said a peace treaty replacing the current armistice should be signed by the two Koreas, the United States, China and the United Nations.
“A peace regime can be achieved by a set of processes . declaratory, practical and legal measures,” Lim said in a written interview with Summit News. “In that context, the countries concerned with the armistice, which are the two Koreas, the United States and China, should agree on the establishment of a Korean peace treaty and make a declaration to end the Korean War.”
Following the declaration, the parties concerned should take practical measures to settle peace on the peninsula such as the normalization of U.S.-North Korea ties, efforts to rid the peninsula of nuclear weapons and arms reductions between the two Koreas, he said.
Lim referred to the creation of a multilateral security regime in Europe after the World War II that had led to the landmark Helsinki Final Act in 1975 as a feasible case toward a Korean peace mechanism.
“The two Koreas should play a major role in creating a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula,” said Lim, a key architect of the “sunshine policy” of engaging the North. He made a pivotal role in arranging the historic first inter-Korean summit as former President Kim’s special envoy. “Therefore, the two Korea should lead the signing of a peace treaty.
The United States and China may guarantee the treaty, while the United Nations ratifies it.” The 1950-53 Korean War ended in a ceasefire treaty signed by the U.S.-led United Nations Command, North Korea and China, not a peace treaty, leaving the two Koreas technically at war.
In the past, North Korea was reluctant to discuss a peace treaty with South Korea, citing the South’s absence in the signing of the armistice. But participating countries at the six-party talks over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program agreed in Sept. 19 2005 that the six nations will negotiate a permanent peace regime on the peninsula. The six-way talks involve the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
The issue gained fresh momentum early last month when U.S. President George W. Bush said he was willing to sign a peace treaty with the North if the communist state pushes through with denuclearization. He made the comment during his meeting with President Roh Moo-hyun on the sideline of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Sydney.
Roh subsequently made it clear that the peace treaty will dominate the second inter-Korean summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
Lim welcomed Washington’s diplomatic approach toward the North’s nuclear issue, a major shift from its hitherto hard-line North Korea policy.
“We cannot tolerate North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons. The Korean Peninsula must be denuclearized,” Lim stressed. “But the North Korean nuclear problem is a result of the longstanding antagonism between Washington and Pyongyang. Without the normalization of the U.S.-North Korea ties, the nuclear issue cannot be resolved easily.”
The United States and North Korea have taken a step toward diplomatic normalization. In bilateral talks in Geneva last month, the North pledged that it would disable its atomic programs by the end of the year under the Feb. 13 denuclearization-for-aid pact.
Senior U.S. officials said Washington is open to a possibility of removing North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.