Hope for Korean Deal Talks Between North and South Are Positive

THE prospect of peaceful, nuclear-free Korean peninsula is one the world wants to embrace. Yesterday brought a faint hint that one day that scenario could be real as the summit between President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea and Kim Jong-il, leader of North Korea, ended with a joint statement that they “shared the view they must end the current armistice and build a permanent peace regime”. It is the first, and a significant, step towards talks with China and the US next month which could lead to a formal ending of the war, which stopped in 1953with an armistice but no treaty.

The diplomatic manoeuvring, however, still has a considerable distance to go. North Korea, which closed down its nuclear reactor in July following the offer of fuel aid, gave a longawaited undertaking to dismantle its nuclear programme in an international agreement with Russia, Japan and China, as well as South Korea, on Wednesday. The real concern, however, is that it may still have a uranium enrichment programme as an alternative way to make fissile material for atomic weapons. The US will drop North Korea from its list of states that sponsor terrorism if it gives a full account of its nuclear programme by the end of the year, but the agreement has no provision for any atomic bombs already produced or any stockpile of plutonium. Much, therefore, needs to be clarified and the US expects the process to be a continuing one. Negotiations must be undertaken in a global context with the effect on the other states on the US list of terroristsponsors finely judged.

North Korea has been hit hard by international sanctions and the fear is that Kim Jong-il is negotiating no more than a short-term fix for his bankrupt economy.

This week’s deal is an echo of the agreement to freeze the nuclear programme in exchange for aid made as Kim Jong-il was succeeding his father, suggesting that he views nuclear weapons as supremely powerful in the diplomatic as well as the military sense.

The summit provides some optimism, albeit guarded, about a thawing of the repressive regime, but the crossborder exchange is not as extensive as had been hoped. Mr Roh was accompanied to Pyongyang by 300 business leaders, but his opposite number, fearing foreign influences will undermine the personality cult on which his rule depends, rebuffed many of South Korea’s suggestions for developments.

There was some progress: they agreed to resume freight train services, expand a joint industrial park, set up regular maritime transport service between the two and have a joint fishing ground. The last frontier of the cold war is at least opening to families separated for more than half a century and the desperately poor people of North Korea will gain some piecemeal improvements. Although the re-unification of the two is still a distant dream, stability is vital and the diplomatic initiative must not be lost.

Originally published by Newsquest Media Group.

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