pyongyang Summit Is Watershed for Peace: Lim
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The leaders of the two Koreas should initiate a multilateral ``peace process'' to create a permanent peace mechanism on the Korean Peninsula on the occasion of the second inter-Korean summit, a key architect of the ``Sunshine Policy'' said.
Former Unification Minister Lim Dong-won, 73, expressed high hopes that the summit will serve as a catalyst for achieving peaceful reunification on the peninsula.
The first step toward that end is a declaration by the leaders of South and North Korea calling for an end to the 1950-53 Korean War and a peace treaty replacing the current armistice that would be signed by the North, the United States, China and the United Nations, and finally South Korea, which was not a signatory to the original armistice, he said.
``A peace regime can be achieved by a set of process of declaratory, practical and legal measures,'' Lim, director of the state-funded think tank the Sejong Institute, said in a written interview with The Korea Times. ``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.''
Lim served as director of the National Intelligence Service during the Kim Dae-jung administration and played a pivotal role in arranging the first inter-Korean summit as former President Kim's special envoy.
Following the declaration, the parties concerned should take practical measures to ensure peace on the peninsula such as the normalization of U.S.-North Korea relations, efforts to rid the peninsula of nuclear weapons and arms reductions by the two Koreas, he said.
Lim referred to the creation of a multilateral security regime in Europe after World War II that 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 to create a peace regime on the peninsula,'' said Lim. ``Therefore, the two Koreas should lead the signing of a peace treaty. The United States and China may guarantee the treaty, while the United Nations ratifies it.''
The 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.
Previously, 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 on 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 of signing a Korean peace treaty gained fresh momentum early last month when U.S. President George W. Bush said during a meeting with President Roh Moo-hyun on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Australia that he is willing to sign a peace treaty with the North if the Stalinist state pushes through with denuclearization.
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 policy on Pyongyang.
``We cannot tolerate North Korea's development of nuclear weapons. The Korean Peninsula must be denuclearized,'' Lim stressed. ``But the North Korean nuclear issue is a result of long-standing antagonism between Washington and Pyongyang. Without the normalization of the U.S.-North Korea relations, the nuclear issue cannot be resolved easily.''
North Korea has taken a step toward diplomatic normalization with the United States. In bilateral talks in Geneva last month, it pledged it would disable its nuclear programs by the end of the year as agreed in a Feb. 13 denuclearization-for-aid pact.
Senior U.S. officials said Washington is open to the possibility of removing North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism in return.