By Yang Moo-jin
The key focus of President Moon Jae-in on his trip to Europe to participate in the G20 summit was peace on the Korean Peninsula. As the first official duty on his itinerary, President Moon met with Pope Francis and asked him to visit North Korea. It was also unusual for Unification Minister Lee In-young to accompany the President on an overseas trip. It is noteworthy that Lee met with the heads of major international organizations such as the WFP and WHO and asked for cooperation in providing humanitarian assistance to North Korea, especially in the health and medical sector. This seems to suggest that the Moon administration will work on specific measures for promoting peace on the Korean Peninsula by starting with humanitarian cooperation in the health, quarantine and livelihood sectors to gain the international community's interest and consensus.
Among the many demands for humanitarian cooperation, the health and medical sector has become the most closely related to our lives in our "new normal" world which has been caused by COVID-19. Through health and medical cooperation on the Korean Peninsula, we need to create a practical fence that can protect the lives and safety of future generations as well as the people in South and North Korea.
This new world requires a new way of cooperation that is different from that of the past. Sustainable cooperation itself should be the goal of coexistence. North Korea is no longer a target for unilateral aid. We should come up with measures to ensure that the two Koreas live together safely as equal partners. The content of cooperation should also be reciprocal in order to make sure that the demands of both sides can be met. This is why there are voices calling for comprehensive, systematic and close cooperation from the medium- to long-term perspective in the diverse health and medical sectors.
In this situation, the announcement that the Health and Medical Cooperation Platform on the Korean Peninsula will be launched Nov.10 with the Ministry of Unification at the center is quite welcome. For the moment, I want to assess positively the move to set the stage for gathering those who take an interest in and have a passion for health and medical cooperation with North Korea, including governments, civic groups at home and abroad, international agencies and academic circles. With the aim of sustainable cooperation with North Korea, I hope that we will be able to accumulate a lot of wisdom and determination from the Health and Medical Cooperation Platform on the Korean Peninsula. Although North Korea now also has its own reasons and situations, I believe there is certainly a need for stable and sustainable cooperation when it comes to the health and medical sector. The cooperation platform should be the stage for communication and cooperation with North Korea in the end with the participation of North Korea.
Lastly, gaining a consensus on the health and medical cooperation within our society is an essential condition for sustainability. It is important to recognize that cooperation is a process to maintain our own lives and safety, not just one to help North Korea unilaterally. During the G20 Summit in Rome, President Moon said that it is hard for us to return to normal life during COVID-19 just by increasing the vaccination rate in any one country, if we do not simultaneously increase the vaccination rate in all countries. We will be able to overcome the COVID-19 crisis when the situation not only in South Korea but also in North Korea becomes better.
Despite expectations in several areas after restoring communication lines between South and North Korea, the frozen inter-Korean relationship has not warmed. However, the history of humanitarian cooperation has continued since 1995 amid ups and downs in inter-Korean relations and military tension. The two Koreas have the experiences of helping and sharing with each other during difficult times. Not only the Moon Jae-in administration, but also previous governments have advocated the principle that humanitarian cooperation should be consistently pursued regardless of the political and security conditions. Although the situation on the Korean Peninsula is complicated because of the nuclear and the "end-of-war" declaration issues, the pursuit of joint cooperation on the urgent matter of COVID-19 should not be delayed. I hope that the two Koreas will steadily pursue health and medical cooperation that saves lives by starting with COVID-19 cooperation, regardless of the circumstances. I hope that the cooperation for life will become a warm breeze for the frozen Korean Peninsula.
Yang Moo-jin (yangmj@kyungnam.ac.kr) is a professor at the University of North Korean Studies and vice chairman of the Korean Association of North Korean Studies. He is also a standing committee member of the National Unification Advisory Council and a policy consultant at the Ministry of Unification.
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Among the many demands for humanitarian cooperation, the health and medical sector has become the most closely related to our lives in our "new normal" world which has been caused by COVID-19. Through health and medical cooperation on the Korean Peninsula, we need to create a practical fence that can protect the lives and safety of future generations as well as the people in South and North Korea.
This new world requires a new way of cooperation that is different from that of the past. Sustainable cooperation itself should be the goal of coexistence. North Korea is no longer a target for unilateral aid. We should come up with measures to ensure that the two Koreas live together safely as equal partners. The content of cooperation should also be reciprocal in order to make sure that the demands of both sides can be met. This is why there are voices calling for comprehensive, systematic and close cooperation from the medium- to long-term perspective in the diverse health and medical sectors.
In this situation, the announcement that the Health and Medical Cooperation Platform on the Korean Peninsula will be launched Nov.10 with the Ministry of Unification at the center is quite welcome. For the moment, I want to assess positively the move to set the stage for gathering those who take an interest in and have a passion for health and medical cooperation with North Korea, including governments, civic groups at home and abroad, international agencies and academic circles. With the aim of sustainable cooperation with North Korea, I hope that we will be able to accumulate a lot of wisdom and determination from the Health and Medical Cooperation Platform on the Korean Peninsula. Although North Korea now also has its own reasons and situations, I believe there is certainly a need for stable and sustainable cooperation when it comes to the health and medical sector. The cooperation platform should be the stage for communication and cooperation with North Korea in the end with the participation of North Korea.
Lastly, gaining a consensus on the health and medical cooperation within our society is an essential condition for sustainability. It is important to recognize that cooperation is a process to maintain our own lives and safety, not just one to help North Korea unilaterally. During the G20 Summit in Rome, President Moon said that it is hard for us to return to normal life during COVID-19 just by increasing the vaccination rate in any one country, if we do not simultaneously increase the vaccination rate in all countries. We will be able to overcome the COVID-19 crisis when the situation not only in South Korea but also in North Korea becomes better.
Despite expectations in several areas after restoring communication lines between South and North Korea, the frozen inter-Korean relationship has not warmed. However, the history of humanitarian cooperation has continued since 1995 amid ups and downs in inter-Korean relations and military tension. The two Koreas have the experiences of helping and sharing with each other during difficult times. Not only the Moon Jae-in administration, but also previous governments have advocated the principle that humanitarian cooperation should be consistently pursued regardless of the political and security conditions. Although the situation on the Korean Peninsula is complicated because of the nuclear and the "end-of-war" declaration issues, the pursuit of joint cooperation on the urgent matter of COVID-19 should not be delayed. I hope that the two Koreas will steadily pursue health and medical cooperation that saves lives by starting with COVID-19 cooperation, regardless of the circumstances. I hope that the cooperation for life will become a warm breeze for the frozen Korean Peninsula.
Yang Moo-jin (yangmj@kyungnam.ac.kr) is a professor at the University of North Korean Studies and vice chairman of the Korean Association of North Korean Studies. He is also a standing committee member of the National Unification Advisory Council and a policy consultant at the Ministry of Unification.
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