hankyoreh

Image generated by ChatGPT. The Korean reads: “Let’s end the war and endeavor to build a world free from nuclear threats and nuclear weapons.”

Greetings. My name is Cheong Wook-sik, and I have worked to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula for 27 years. In this open letter, I want to send my regards to Kim Jong-un, chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and President Donald Trump of the United States of America.

As you are both aware, all eyes are on a potential North Korea-US summit. The public in South Korea as well as the Lee administration in Seoul are hoping that this meeting takes place as a major step toward peace on the peninsula and the world at large. My hope is that the proposed talks become a major milestone in officially ending the Korean War, which has technically lasted for over 76 years.

President Trump has said on several occasions that the war must end. At his summit with President Lee Jae Myung on Oct. 29 last year, he said he was aware that the two Koreas are “officially at war” and pledged to “work very hard” with Chairman Kim on “getting things straightened out.” During their meeting in Singapore in June 2018, both leaders agreed to replace the armistice regime on the peninsula with a framework of permanent peace.

The key point is that, despite their many differences and disagreements, North Korea and the United States must prioritize ending the war and establishing a lasting peace regime. President Lee has made comments to this effect on several occasions.

China, as a party to this matter and signatory to the armistice agreement, is of the position that a peace regime is crucial for stability and peace on the peninsula. For all four parties to this issue to share the goal of ending the conflict and devising a peace regime is highly unusual. In this regard, I highly commend President Trump for his keen interest and commitment to this matter.

Some call the Korean War the longest in American history. I believe this expression refers to how the conflict, which erupted in 1950, has not yet officially ended. And if armed hostilities were to erupt again on the peninsula, the risk is that they could escalate into a nuclear war and further to the level of a world war due to the complexities of alliances.

This underscores the historic mission and great achievement that both leaders would take on by making the monumental step of ending the war and establishing a peace regime. The historical imperative for their meeting lies precisely with this point.

On the nuclear issue, Chairman Kim wants the US to drop its demand for the North’s denuclearization as a precondition for holding a bilateral summit, and I have heard that President Trump is highly interested in this matter.

The governments of South Korea and the US, along with those of other countries, want to keep a nuclear-free peninsula as a fundamental goal because of fears that the future-oriented opportunity inherent in a Pyongyang-Washington summit could get lost due to disagreements over the nuclear issue. But I believe that President Trump has already set forth an alternative approach.

President Trump has proposed several times that the US and Russia, which collectively possess most of the world’s nuclear weapons, and China, which is boosting its atomic arsenal, should take the lead in nuclear disarmament, followed by other nuclear-armed states including North Korea.

He has further emphasized that this should pave the path toward global denuclearization. Intended to place the denuclearization of both the North and the peninsula within the broader framework of global nuclear disarmament and denuclearization, his comments could aptly be construed as proposing a shift in thinking akin to the Copernican revolution. 

Chairman Kim should stop hesitating and accept the hand President Trump has extended and embark on this great journey. Pyongyang claims that it seeks nuclear armament to prevent nuclear war and ensure strategic stability. Yet these goals cannot be achieved amid an increasingly intense nuclear arms race and tension teetering on the brink of conflict.

I sincerely hope that the two leaders meet as soon as possible to dispel the specter of nuclear war that hangs over the world and send a message of hope for a future free from nuclear threats and weapons. By formally ending the Korean War — which has officially dragged on for over 70 years — I hope that they provide the grounds for hope that conflicts in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere can also finally come to a close.

By Cheong Wook-sik, director of the Hankyoreh Peace Institute and director of the Peace Network

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]