Challenges to Peace in Northeast Asia and our Tasks

Se Hyun Jeong

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Challenges to Peace in Northeast Asia and our Tasks

Se Hyun Jeong

Former Minister of Unification, South Korea

South Korea is an "island" located on the Korean peninsula, the eastern tip of the Asian continent. From the perspective of South Koreans living on this "island," the gravest challenge to peace in Northeast Asia is the North Korean nuclear issue. However, it is safer to say that the North Korean nuclear problem is a byproduct of the Cold War structure in Northeast Asia. Therefore, if the Cold War structure in the region is completely dismantled, the North Korean nuclear issue will be resolved, and then, lasting peace will take root in Northeast Asia.

As soon as the Second World War ended, the Cold War led by the United States and the Soviet Union forced the two Koreas into confrontation and nurtured an intense hostility between them. Chinese participation in the Korean War (June 1950- July 1953) also resulted in a hostile relationship between the United States and China. Since then, the Cold War structure in Northeast Asia has evolved into a confrontation of two politico-military triangles--one on the North consisting of North Korea, China, and the Soviet Union, and the other on the South comprising of South Korea, the United States, and Japan.

President Richard Nixon's visit to China in February 1972 eventually resulted in the ending of the hostile relationship between China and the United States. There is little doubt that a defrosting Sino-Japanese mutual hostility was an ensuing byproduct of Nixon's visit. In December 1989, the US-Soviet summit in Malta terminated the Cold War in Europe. The melting tide witnessed the establishment of diplomatic relations between South Korea and the Soviet Union in September 1990 and again the South Korean-Chinese rapprochement in August 1992.

Despite North Korea's request for a diplomatic relationship with the United States in January 1992, the United States flatly rejected the North Korean call. Furthermore, Japan-North Korea hostilities continued because of the US-Japan alliance. By the early 1990s, Chinese relations with the United State and Japan, and South Korean ties with the Soviet Union and China improved to the level of formal diplomatic relations. The North Korean relations with the United States and Japan, however, have not changed significantly. In other words, half of the Cold War structure in Northeast Asia remains intact until now, even though the need for change is more evident than ever.

It is clear that in the early 1990s, the US rejection of North Korea's requests for a diplomatic relationship and the US' continuing military threat to North Korea prompted North Korea’s nuclear development, as a result. To make it worse, the consecutive sophistication of North Korean nuclear capability during the pastquartercentury has been the gravest challenges to peace and stability in Northeast Asia.

To bring peace to Northeast Asia, we should work towards dismantling the remaining half of the Northeast Asian Cold War structure, of which the other half was demolished in the early 1990s.

Paradoxically, the United States and North Korea agreed to resolve the North Korean nuclear issuewhen North Korea's nuclear-missile capabilities became sophisticated. Donald Trump and Kim Jung Un shook hands to improve US-North Korean relations, to build peace on the Korean peninsula, and to denuclearize North Korea at the US-North Korea summit on June 12th in Singapore. North Korea agreed to abandon its nuclear program that has been threatening Northeast Asia over 25 years, and President Trump expressed his intention to sign a peace treaty with North Korea that Pyongyang has been longing for 25 years.

Before meeting Trump with a promise to denuclearize, the North Korean leader agreed on inter-Korean economic cooperation, while declaring the so-called complete denuclearization first to Moon Jae In at the Panmunjom summit on April 27. It means that South Korea has taken the lead in promoting peace through inter-Korean economic cooperation, and the United States has decided to lead the denuclearization of North Korea through diplomatic relations and a peace treaty.

The North Korean nuclear problem will be solved only if the United States sets up diplomatic ties with North Korea and changes the controversial armistice agreement into a peace treaty. The remaining question is, "How soon will the agreements between the US and North Korean leaders be implemented by the original proposal?"

We encourage countries in the Northeast Asian region to actively support and closely monitor the historic Singapore Agreements between the United States and North Korea so that they will not drift or lose direction. I am not saying it is easy to do. Nevertheless, resolving the North Korean nuclear issue would not only bring peace to the Korean people but also ensure the peace and prosperity of all countries in the Northeast Asian region.