On his way to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as President Roh Moo Hyun's special envoy, Unification Minister Chung Dong Young stopped in Berlin and outlined the Participatory Government's "three major peace strategies," which more concrete detailing of its North Korea policy. Chung said the three major principles in ending the Cold War on the Korean peninsula will be impermissibility of war, peaceful coexistence, and joint prosperity. He also said three things need to take place for the North Korean nuclear issue to be resolved; a fourth round of six-party talks at an early date, the beginning of substantial negotiations, a decision on the party of North Korea to abandon its nuclear program, and an embracing approach by the United States.
The six-party talks have been unable to open for months and neither has there been any inter-Korean dialogue, and so the situation is in dire need of breakthrough. The US administration of George W. Bush has begun its second term and has almost completed assembling its team of policymakers on North Korea, and you can sense a deep sense of purpose in Chung's speech, a belief on his part that there can be no further delay in getting the six-party talks started again. It is based on that judgment that he appealed to North Korea to waste no more time and make the strategic decision to give up its program, and to call on the US to take a changed approach in order to encourage that. He said the government will be willing to give agricultural aid such as food, fertilizer, and farming equipment to the North, and that should there be progress on the nuclear issue, the South would actively pursue the giving of energy aid, in the form of electricity.
Chung revealed his dream about there being substantial progress on the nuclear issue in a way that allows for a declaration of the end of the Cold War on the Korean peninsula when world leaders gather for the APEC meeting in Busan this November. In his speech at the closing ceremony in Davos, he expressed the same hopes an in particular said he hopes to have North Korea's leader come to Busan for the APEC summit.
Berlin is the site of Germany's reunification and where former president Kim Dae Jung issued the historic "Berlin Declaration," which laid the foundation for the intra-Korean summit with North Korea's National Defence Commission Chairman Kim Jong Il. We hope that Chung's "peace strategy" will contribute to the resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue and the end of the Cold War on the Korean peninsula.
The Hankyoreh, 31 January 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] 'Peace Strategy' in Berlin |
