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In Search of the Korean Peninsula Peace Regime Building
Author(s) -
Kwak TaeHwan
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
pacific focus
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.172
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 1976-5118
pISSN - 1225-4657
DOI - 10.1111/j.1976-5118.2005.tb00291.x
Subject(s) - peninsula , peace treaty , china , treaty , political science , east asia , international trade , law , geography , politics , business , archaeology
The author proposes a long‐term, comprehensive roadmap for the Korean peninsula peace regime initiative for replacing the 1953 Korean armistice agreement with a Korean peninsula peace treaty. The two approaches to a Korean peninsula peace regime building are examined in detail at the inter‐Korean and the international levels. The two Koreas at the inter‐Korean level, and the six parties involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan, and Russia at the international level may concurrently make efforts to build a peace regime by replacing the 1953 Korean armistice agreement with a peace treaty through confidence‐building measures, national reconciliation and international cooperation. A peace regime can be institutionalized by implementing the inter‐Korean basic agreement (1991) through inter‐Korean cooperation and by concluding a Korean peninsula peace treaty through the four‐party peace talks involving the U.S., China, and the two Koreas. However, the current North Korea's nuclear issue has been a key obstacle to the peace regime building process. Three major arguments in this paper are presented: First, the two Koreas and the four major powers need to agree on a comprehensive roadmap for the Korean peace regime. Second, in the short‐term, the North Korea's nuclear issue should be resolved peacefully and diplomatically through the six‐party process. Third, the two Koreas need to abandon their respective positions: the Seoul's proposal for an inter‐Korean peace treaty and the Pyeongyang's proposal for a DPRK‐U.S. peace treaty to replace the 1953 Korean armistice agreement. The author proposes that a Korean peninsula peace treaty among the four parties involving the ROK, the DPRK, the U.S. and China should be an alternative, and the proposal needs to be seriously considered.