It is illogical to talk about peace while military tension on the Korean peninsula is escalating. However, it is the stark reality that the divided nation is in this oxymoronic situation. North Korea created a new crisis by torpedoing a South Korean warship and shelling Yeonpyeong Island near the West Sea border last year.
Now, the nation is caught between the fallout from the North’s provocations and its gesture of dialogue for denuclearization and reconciliation. In the face of an international outcry for the two brutal attacks, Pyongyang has offered to return to the stalled six-party denuclearization talks.
The Stalinist state has also called for defusing tension with Seoul. It said in a joint New Year’s editorial published by its official media including the Rodong Sinmun that “Confrontation between the North and the South should be defused as early as possible.” This call is seen as a ploy to avoid its responsibility for the two attacks that claimed the lives of 46 sailors in March and two marines and two civilians in November.
We have to call into question the message because the North has refused to admit to and apologize for its brutal acts of aggression. In the editorial, the North threatened to use nuclear weapons in the case of war. “If a war breaks out on this land, it will bring nothing but a nuclear holocaust,” it said, arguing that war was averted last year because of “our persevering efforts” and calling for the creation of “an atmosphere of dialogue and cooperation” this year.
It seems that the Kim Jong-il regime wants to get a clean bill of health over its brutal acts and force the South to accommodate its peace gesture. In this sense, it is not easy for Seoul to immediately get back to dialogue with Pyongyang although President Lee Myung-bak hinted at a change of his hard-line stance on the North last week. The South should not play into the hands of the North as the latter lacks sincerity in easing tension.
Past experience shows how difficult it has been to bring a change to the North despite a decade of the Sunshine Policy of active engagement with the reclusive country. The Kim regime has continued to develop nuclear weapons by reneging on its denuclearization pledges. It has never given up its military adventurism.
In this context, it is imperative to have a new paradigm to end the Cold War confrontation and settle peace on the peninsula. The two Koreas cannot make a breakthrough by sticking to maintaining the status quo. The Kim regime has little room to maneuver as it is engrossed in tightening its grip on power and speeding up a hereditary power transfer amid economic woes. It is difficult to expect a change in the North.
Therefore, the South should take the initiative in making a nuclear free peninsula and promoting peace in Northeast Asia. It needs to hammer out an exit strategy to go beyond the current crisis-management mode. The Lee administration should choose the right time to have dialogue with the North and prod it to move toward reconciliation, co-existence and peace.
South Koreans have learned a painful lesson from the North’s nuclear gambling and saber-rattling. President Lee is required to live up to people’s expectation that they can live without any apprehension about national security and defense. We hope the New Year will be a turning point in inter-Korean relations.