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THE VIEW FROM
PYONGYANG
Why North Korea isn't
talking
By An Sang Nam
(Used by permission of Pacific Forum CSIS)
PYONGYANG - Today, the situation in
Northeast Asia surrounding the Korean peninsula is
more inflamed than ever before. This causes great
concern not only among all the Korean people, but
also among people in the region. This urgent
situation presses for steps to prevent a new war
and ensure the peace and security in the region by
concerted efforts of regional countries.
Rising tension
The US's hostile policy
against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
(DPRK) and its arms buildup constitutes a major
factor 
threatening security in this region.
The six-party talks have yet to be resumed and the
resolution of the nuclear issue has been delayed.
To all intents and purposes, this is the fault of
the US.
Several times, the DPRK put a just
demand to the US to change its hostile policy
aimed at seeking "regime change" and shift its
policy in favor of peaceful co-existence between
the DPRK and the US. If the US does this, the
nuclear issue can be resolved.
But the
second Bush administration, like that of the first
term, stipulated as its policy not to co-exist
with the DPRK, but to "overturn" the system chosen
by the Korean people themselves.
The Bush
administration says that it is not hostile toward
the DPRK and it doesn't intend to invade it. But
it acts differently from what it says. It sets as
its "overriding objective" "regime change" in the
DPRK and remains persistent in employing
double-faced tactics of stick and carrot for this
purpose.
This is well proved by the fact
that President George W Bush labeled the DPRK,
defining it as part of the "axis of evil" and an
"outpost of tyranny". Worse still, he slandered
the supreme leadership of the DPRK.
It is
well established that Bush, as soon as he took
office, reneged on all dialogues and negotiations
with the DPRK that the previous administration had
held, and defined the DPRK as part of an "axis of
evil" in his State of the Union address of late
January 2002, and named it as a target of a US
"preemptive nuclear strike" in March that same
year.
This time, Bush, rather than
retracting his labeling of his dialogue partner
the DPRK as part of an "axis of evil", overstepped
the mark, listing the state-chosen DPRK government
as an "outpost of tyranny", defining it as the
object to be removed. He thus made the DPRK fail
to find any credible reason to participate in the
six-way talks.
The US puts its dialogue
partner in dishonor, though it says it wants to
hold negotiations. All told, this is not what we
call a sincere approach to resolving the nuclear
issue.
The US is also massively deploying
huge ultra-modern war hardware in south Korea
under the pretext of "repositioning its forces".
The repositioning of US troops in south Korea is
part of a new war preparation based on the theory
of "preemptive strike". [Editor's note: while
North Koreans traditionally refer to their own
country as the DPRK, they usually refer to the
Republic of Korea as south Korea rather than South
Korea or the ROK.]
The US announced in May
2003 an "arms buildup plan" with an envisaged
investment of US$11 billion for south Korea. In
mid-2004, it began deploying en masse its latest
war hardware with an increased fund of $13 billion
under the signboard of "relocation of combat
forces".
The "arms buildup plan" is
justified to fill the "security vacuum" to be
caused by the "reduced US troops" in south Korea.
This plan [has already been more than half
realized].
The US earmarked a lion's share
of its budget for the research of smaller nuclear
weapons aimed to destroy underground bunkers of
the DPRK and simulates dropping nuclear bombs by
deploying in south Korea US Air Force planes
stationed in Japan, Guam and other places, in
addition to the US forces in south Korea. This
fact is no longer considered secret. The US brings
into south Korea the latest war hardware, the
destructive power of which was tested in the
aggressive war in Iraq.
The US, as it
reinforces its armed forces in south Korea,
commits itself to continued joint military
exercises on a large-scale basis against the DPRK.
Last March, the US and belligerent forces in south
Korea staged in the whole area of south Korea
joint military exercises codenamed "Foal Eagle".
Such military exercises are, to all intents and
purposes, a nuclear war rehearsal with its eye on
the north, and include massive participation of
elite forces in south Korea , the US mainland, and
overseas and other nuclear strike forces such as
aircraft carriers.
Through such exercises,
the US pursues efforts to upgrade maneuverability
beyond the Korean peninsula at a moment's notice,
not making its operational field confined to the
DPRK, but is designed in the light of the changed
mission of US forces in south Korea to become a
"mobile force in the wider region".
To
cope with the grave situation created by the US
hostile policy toward the DPRK, the DPRK on
February 10 clarified that it was compelled to
suspend its participation in the six-party talks
for an indefinite period until there was
justification for it to attend and there were
ample conditions and atmosphere to expect positive
results from the talks. The DPRK also took a
measure to bolster its nuclear weapons arsenal in
order to protect the ideology, system and
democracy chosen by its people as the US disclosed
its attempt to topple the political system in the
DPRK at any cost.
It is quite natural to
respond to nukes in kind.
Aggravating
the regional situation
China now increases
its influence in Asia. South Korea is at
loggerheads with the US over the "security issue".
What the US is cooking in this situation is a
proxy war in which countries in Northeast Asia
turn their backs and fight each other. For this,
the Bush administration tries to put in place a
structure of confrontational containment against
the DPRK and China by the US, Japan and south
Korea.
Recently, the US fans Japan over
Tokdo islet, sacred territory of Korea, and
Tokyo's bid for permanent membership on the UN
Security Council. This puts a great spur to Japan
in its undisguised bid to seize territories of
other countries and distort history.
The
US does not like to see the Korean nation moving
toward reunification hand-in-hand and tries by all
possible means to put a fifth wheel in the smooth
development of inter-Korean relations. This year
alone, the US has put pressure on the south Korean
authorities to "keep pace with the speed of
economic cooperation" and "make it clear on the
conception of a principal enemy".
All the
facts prove that the US does not seek
reconciliation and cooperation between the north
and the south of Korea and security in Northeast
Asia, but instead seeks confrontation between the
north and the south.
How to ensure
security
First, in order to ease tension
in Northeast Asia and ensure regional peace and
security, it is essential for the US to renounce
its hostile policy toward the DPRK and co-exist
with it in peace.
The nuclear issue
between the DPRK and the US is a product of the
Bush administration's extreme hostile policy. Such
being the case, the key to this resolution lies in
the US changing its hostile policy into a policy
for peaceful co-existence between the DPRK and the
US. As long as the US does not change its hostile
policy against the DPRK, we can neither expect
regional peace and stability nor the resolution of
the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the US.
It is par for the course that the US
should apologize and withdraw what it said about
the DPRK "ending its tyranny" and gives up its
hostile policy aimed at "regime change" in the
DPRK. It also should make clear its political will
to move toward peaceful co-existence. Through all
this, the US should put its money where its mouth
is.
The DPRK remains unchanged in its
principled stand and maintains its overriding
objective: to denuclearize the Korean peninsula
and resolve the nuclear issue peacefully through
dialogue and negotiations.
The DPRK is
prepared to participate in the six-way talks at
any time if the US provides the DPRK with
conditions and justification for the resumption of
the six-party talks without disregarding the DPRK.
The switchover of the US policy from hostility
toward the DPRK to one of peaceful co-existence
with the DPRK and a complete solution to the
nuclear issue between the DPRK and the US will
naturally bring about settlement of the security
issue in Northeast Asia.
Second, one way
of ensuring regional security is that those
countries interested in the security in Northeast
Asia and linked to the continent meet to discuss
the issue of security. The master of Northeast
Asia is the countries and people in this region.
They are deeply interested in this security and
have the potential and capacity to be responsible
for regional peace and security. That is why it is
very important for these countries to meet to
discuss the issue of regional security. As the US
is across the ocean and Japan is away from the
continent, they have no interest in the peace and
security of Northeast Asia - nor can they have any
responsibility for them.
Third, it is
possible to ensure the security of Northeast Asia
only when all aggressive forces deployed in this
region are completely removed. In order to ensure
regional security, US forces along with all its
lethal weapons must be withdrawn from this region
and US interference in the internal affairs of
other countries be terminated.
Fourth, the
militarism of Japan must be checked at any cost.
Japan's ambition to beautify and justify its dirty
history of aggression, to grab the territory of
other countries and step up preparations to
reinvade Asia must be frustrated at all costs as
it is a very dangerous development from the
viewpoint of peace in Asia and the rest of the
world.
The DPRK, as a responsible country
located in Northeast Asia, will make every
possible effort to ensure regional peace and
security, as it did in the past.
An
Song Nam is senior researcher at the Institute
of Disarmament and Peace, Pyongyang, DPRK. This
paper was originally presented at the 19th
Asia-Pacific roundtable that was recently held in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Opinions expressed are
solely those of the author.
(Used by
permission of Pacific Forum CSIS) |
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