By Park Moo-jong
Spring has come as proved by the thermometer in the government's weather office. But spring is not around the Korean Peninsula yet in the hearts of the people.
Whether spring will come or not totally depends on the result of the upcoming summits between the leaders of the involved countries, namely the Republic of Korea, the Democratic Republic of Korea and the United States.
Nature greets the coming of the new season, but as if being envious of the coming of spring, a terrible fine dust attack has made people shiver, forcing them to stay in shelters.
No matter how people may talk negatively about the coming spring, I'd like to quote the 1971 Nobel Literature Prize winner Pablo Neruda (1904-73) of Chile: "You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming."
From a long, long time ago, spring used to be a season dubbed as the symbol of celebration. People greet spring humbly, believing it is a season that brings about a new blessing and will come without fail, despite the biting cold and stormy blizzards. Spring plants hope in the mind of people, and has them make resolutions to achieve something.
In particular, Russian writer Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) wrote in his novel "Anna Karenina": "Spring is the time of plans and projects." Yes. Our leaders are working out plans and projects for the summits.
A South Korean artists' performance slated for early April in Pyongyang, reciprocating the North's at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics was also titled "Spring Is Coming." And MC Seo Hyeon is going to sing the North's song, "Green Willow," nature's messenger for spring.
The South's five-member girl band Red Velvet will pave the red carpet for Pyongyang citizens and will sing "Red Flavor" and "Bad Boy" that may tempt some people to think of "something" or "someone" in a bizarre coincidence.
Around this time of every year, I used to listen to symphonies about spring such as Robert Schumann's (1810-1865) "Symphony No. 1: Spring" and Benjamin Britten's (1913-1976) "Spring Symphony," not to mention Johann Strauss Junior's (1825-1899) "Voices of Spring."
Included in my list are Ludwig van Beethoven's (1770-1827) "Violin Sonata No 5: Spring" by violinist Henryk Szeryng accompanied by pianist Arthur Rubinstein and, of course, I Musici's "The Spring" of the "Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivalidi (1678-1741).
A symphony, needless to say, is an extended piece of orchestral music in three or more movements and also can mean harmony, especially of sound or color. It is also something characterized by a harmonious combination of elements.
Who will orchestrate the coming summits best?
The basis of any orchestra is its harmony. Under the baton of their conductor, musicians playing different instruments are supposed to perform in perfect harmony, which shows the audience the virtues of cooperation.
The upcoming summit between Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un and another summit between Kim and Donald Trump should be like well-orchestrated symphonies.
Over the past 65 years, the South and the North has been technically at war, confronted along the Demilitarized Zone, while the North has been mounting tension in the area with its state-of-arts nuclear weapons of mass destruction, particularly targeting the U.S. with ICBMs.
The "rogue" young man of the North agreed to the unexpected summits amid a speculation that he might be able to no longer resist the ever-intensifying international sanctions and become committed to denuclearization, if his leadership is guaranteed.
If the speculation is true, there will be no problem at all for the settlement of peace on the peninsula and the improvement of relations between the South and the North.
However, the world well remembers that the North has been betraying it by not keeping its promises to give up nuclear arms over the past decades. Especially, Trump definitely appears to be determined not to be fooled this time.
And the U.S. president has employed two of the most hawkish men against the North as his top officials to deal with North Korean problems, sending a tough warning to Kim.
It is a historical achievement that the South Korean government has arranged the Kim-Trump meeting. This means that Seoul ought to mobilize every diplomatic resource to help settle peace on the peninsula and thus on the planet as a mediator between Pyongyang and Washington.
The success or failure of the talks also largely depends on the cooperation of neighboring powers such as China, Russia and Japan.
It cannot be overemphasized that the countries should not be sidelined or overlooked in the processes of the talks. Already we have bitter lessons through the previous summits.
The preparatory talks between the two sides for the talks must focus on how to persuade the North to come up with its own plans for denuclearization before the inter-Korean talks in April, thus, to help the North-U.S. summit in May make more specific agreements.
Listening to the voices of spring, I hope that the three leaders will be able to bring a real spring on the peninsula by well orchestrating their summits like symphonies. Listening to the dissonance of a symphony orchestra is a devastating disaster. The settlement of peace on the peninsula must be one of the inevitabilities of history.
Park Moo-jong is a standing adviser of The Korea Times. He served as the president-publisher of the nation's first English daily newspaper founded in 1951 from 2004 to 2014 after working as a reporter since 1974. He can be reached at moojong@ktimes.com or emjei29@gmail.com
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Whether spring will come or not totally depends on the result of the upcoming summits between the leaders of the involved countries, namely the Republic of Korea, the Democratic Republic of Korea and the United States.
Nature greets the coming of the new season, but as if being envious of the coming of spring, a terrible fine dust attack has made people shiver, forcing them to stay in shelters.
No matter how people may talk negatively about the coming spring, I'd like to quote the 1971 Nobel Literature Prize winner Pablo Neruda (1904-73) of Chile: "You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming."
From a long, long time ago, spring used to be a season dubbed as the symbol of celebration. People greet spring humbly, believing it is a season that brings about a new blessing and will come without fail, despite the biting cold and stormy blizzards. Spring plants hope in the mind of people, and has them make resolutions to achieve something.
In particular, Russian writer Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) wrote in his novel "Anna Karenina": "Spring is the time of plans and projects." Yes. Our leaders are working out plans and projects for the summits.
A South Korean artists' performance slated for early April in Pyongyang, reciprocating the North's at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics was also titled "Spring Is Coming." And MC Seo Hyeon is going to sing the North's song, "Green Willow," nature's messenger for spring.
The South's five-member girl band Red Velvet will pave the red carpet for Pyongyang citizens and will sing "Red Flavor" and "Bad Boy" that may tempt some people to think of "something" or "someone" in a bizarre coincidence.
Around this time of every year, I used to listen to symphonies about spring such as Robert Schumann's (1810-1865) "Symphony No. 1: Spring" and Benjamin Britten's (1913-1976) "Spring Symphony," not to mention Johann Strauss Junior's (1825-1899) "Voices of Spring."
Included in my list are Ludwig van Beethoven's (1770-1827) "Violin Sonata No 5: Spring" by violinist Henryk Szeryng accompanied by pianist Arthur Rubinstein and, of course, I Musici's "The Spring" of the "Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivalidi (1678-1741).
A symphony, needless to say, is an extended piece of orchestral music in three or more movements and also can mean harmony, especially of sound or color. It is also something characterized by a harmonious combination of elements.
Who will orchestrate the coming summits best?
The basis of any orchestra is its harmony. Under the baton of their conductor, musicians playing different instruments are supposed to perform in perfect harmony, which shows the audience the virtues of cooperation.
The upcoming summit between Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un and another summit between Kim and Donald Trump should be like well-orchestrated symphonies.
Over the past 65 years, the South and the North has been technically at war, confronted along the Demilitarized Zone, while the North has been mounting tension in the area with its state-of-arts nuclear weapons of mass destruction, particularly targeting the U.S. with ICBMs.
The "rogue" young man of the North agreed to the unexpected summits amid a speculation that he might be able to no longer resist the ever-intensifying international sanctions and become committed to denuclearization, if his leadership is guaranteed.
If the speculation is true, there will be no problem at all for the settlement of peace on the peninsula and the improvement of relations between the South and the North.
However, the world well remembers that the North has been betraying it by not keeping its promises to give up nuclear arms over the past decades. Especially, Trump definitely appears to be determined not to be fooled this time.
And the U.S. president has employed two of the most hawkish men against the North as his top officials to deal with North Korean problems, sending a tough warning to Kim.
It is a historical achievement that the South Korean government has arranged the Kim-Trump meeting. This means that Seoul ought to mobilize every diplomatic resource to help settle peace on the peninsula and thus on the planet as a mediator between Pyongyang and Washington.
The success or failure of the talks also largely depends on the cooperation of neighboring powers such as China, Russia and Japan.
It cannot be overemphasized that the countries should not be sidelined or overlooked in the processes of the talks. Already we have bitter lessons through the previous summits.
The preparatory talks between the two sides for the talks must focus on how to persuade the North to come up with its own plans for denuclearization before the inter-Korean talks in April, thus, to help the North-U.S. summit in May make more specific agreements.
Listening to the voices of spring, I hope that the three leaders will be able to bring a real spring on the peninsula by well orchestrating their summits like symphonies. Listening to the dissonance of a symphony orchestra is a devastating disaster. The settlement of peace on the peninsula must be one of the inevitabilities of history.
Park Moo-jong is a standing adviser of The Korea Times. He served as the president-publisher of the nation's first English daily newspaper founded in 1951 from 2004 to 2014 after working as a reporter since 1974. He can be reached at moojong@ktimes.com or emjei29@gmail.com
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