Power of Dialogue

The following is the summary of former President Kim Dae-jung's keynote speech Thursday at the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Summit now under way in Stavanger, Norway. ― ED.

Currently, the new Lee Myung-bak government is at odds with Pyongyang. Inter-Korean dialogue is on hold.

But the situation will not last long, because

the two most decisive elements of the six-party talks and North-U.S. relations will make progress. Neither Seoul nor Pyongyang wants to stop dialogue and return to a Cold War era.

They are still pursuing the path of dialogue. I believe that if President Lee Myung-bak acknowledges the June 15 South-North Joint Declaration and October 4 Declaration issued respectively by the Kim Dae-jung government and the succeeding Roh Moo-hyun government, the two Koreas can resume dialogue.

It is only through dialogue that security and a win-win outcome for the parties concerned can be achieved.

North Korea has abundant underground resources and tourism resources. If Korea is to open an inland road through Eurasia to reach Paris and London, it has to pass through North Korean railroads.

We all know that if this so-called Iron Silk Road is realized, it will bring enormous benefits for both Koreas as well as countries in Eurasia.

During the Korean War, which broke out in 1950, the two Koreas suffered enormous losses and gained nothing.

During the five decades of the Cold War, an exhausting history was repeated, characterized by hatred and animosity, and the expansion of armaments.

Now is the time to transform the inter-Korean relationship into a structure for permanent peace and cooperation through dialogue. Improvements in North-U.S. relations and the success of the six-party talks will be the key in this.

In light of this, I believe that another South and North Summit has to be held soon.

I think that, despite the current deadlock, the prospect of the situation on the Korean peninsula is not pessimistic if it goes through dialogue. Because it is the shared aspiration of the 70 million South and North Koreans and indeed there is no other option.

Following the end of World War II, the U.S. and the West spent five decades of the Cold War in confrontation with the Soviet Union. But the Cold War did not bring peace nor positive changes in the field of human rights and democracy.

Ultimately, they took these matters to forums for dialogue. Detente between the U.S. and the Soviet Union marked the beginning of the politics of dialogue. Detente led to the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, known as the Helsinki Accords.

The Helsinki Accords facilitated mutual security assurances between the East and the West and economic, cultural, and human exchanges.

As a result, the peoples of the Soviet Union and East Europe visited the West and met peoples from the West who were visiting the Soviet Union.

They came to the realization that communism failed to build a paradise, and the Western world was not a land of evil, but a land of envy.

Following that, the Soviet Union and East Europe witnessed great changes in public sentiment and criticism emerged from within.

These changes led to Gorbachev's perestroika and glasnost, resulting in the democratization of the Soviet Union and East Europe. German unification was said to be made possible through the cooperation of neighboring countries and the Soviet Union is said to have been a major element in German unification.

And there were other elements of importance, which were dialogue, exchanges and cooperation enabled by the decades-long Ostpolitik that actually transformed East Germany and pulled it into the fold of West Germany.

The power of dialogue was great indeed. The same logic applies in the cases of China and Vietnam. Neither the Cold War nor the Hot War could resolve conflicts in these two respective countries.

It was dialogue and reciprocal cooperation that brought changes to these two

and shaped China and Vietnam of today.

Lesson From History

We have learned from history that all conflicts should be resolved by means of peaceful dialogue and for mutual benefit. Mutual benefit is a precondition for the success of dialogue.

This is the pressing task that we have to achieve given by history. In the world today we see armed conflicts in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Asia, but it is not by force that these can be resolved.

It is only through peaceful dialogue aiming at a win-win outcome that we can find solutions to such situations. The people of the 21st century, living in the age of globalization, find that they are called upon to engage in more dialogue and at a level unprecedented in history.

Dialogue for a shared victory! This is the very essence of the sunshine policy!