Will Moon's peace initiative pick up momentum?

2024-05-20 23:42:17      点击：347

President Moon Jae-in listens to Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un, during a performance of North Korea's Samjiyon Band at a theater in Seoul, Feb. 11, 2018. Korea Times photo by Koh Young-kwon

Pyongyang positive on Moon's proposal to end Korean War

By Nam Hyun-woo

Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said Friday that the regime believes President Moon Jae-in's proposal to put a formal end to the Korean War could be "an admirable idea" and Pyongyang has a "willingness" to talk if South Korea withdraws its "double-dealing standards" and "hostile policies."

The rare "conciliatory" response came three days after the President renewed the proposal in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly. However, it remains to be seen whether Moon's repeated proposal will improve stalled inter-Korean ties in the last stages of his presidency.

In a statement carried by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency, Kim said, "The declaration of the termination of the war is an interesting and an admirable idea in that it itself is meant to put a physical end to the instable state of ceasefire that has remained on the Korean peninsula for a long time and to withdraw hostility toward the opposite party.

"We have willingness to keep our close contacts with the South again and have constructive discussion with it about the restoration and development of the bilateral relations if it is careful about its future language and not hostile toward us after breaking with the past when it often provoked us and made far-fetched assertions to find fault with anything done by us out of double-dealing standards."

Kim then laid out a set of conditions for inter-Korean talks to end the war, such as the two Koreas guaranteeing mutual respect and the South abandoning "illogical prejudice, hostile stand of justifying their own acts and double-dealing attitudes."

The double-dealing attitude Kim was referring to is assumed to be South Korea's recent testing of an indigenous submarine-launched ballistic missiles, Sept. 15. When North Korea launched a ballistic missile from a train the same day, Seoul defined the North's move as a provocation.

In a statement released by Pyongyang's Vice Foreign Minister Ri Thae-song hours before that of Kim, Ri also said, "(North Korea's) measures to bolster up the capability for defense to cope with the U.S. military threat to bring us down by force are described as 'provocations' while the arms buildup escalated by the U.S. and its vassal forces to threaten the DPRK is justified as 'deterrent.'" He added "such an American-style double-dealing attitude is also a product of the hostile policy toward the DPRK." The DPRK stands for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

'Not yet': North Korea opposed to formally ending Korean War 2021-09-24 08:40  |  North Korea
Three days before the statements, Moon proposed a formal end to the Korean War through a trilateral or quadrilateral end-of-war declaration involving the two Koreas, the U.S. and China.

The Korean War ended in an armistice signed in 1953, leaving the two Koreas technically still at war. Due to this, Moon has been championing the idea as a stepping stone to improve inter-Korean relations and entice the North to give up its nuclear weapons program.

The idea has, however, gained little traction, despite Moon again proposing it during a U.N. speech in New York, Tuesday, as a last-ditch effort before his presidency ends in May.

President Moon Jae-in listens to a reporter's question during an in-flight press conference on his way back to Seoul, Thursday, following a five-day visit to New York and Hawaii. Yonhap

"Though it is difficult to forecast the future, I don't believe North Korea has closed the door for talks," Moon said during an in-flight press conference on his way back to Seoul, Thursday, following a five-day visit to New York and Hawaii.

"Though North Korea fired missiles last time, it is maintaining its own moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests, and maintaining low-key provocations, which are not serious enough to make the U.S. abandon dialogue," Moon said.

Moon also said an end-of-war declaration was a non-binding political statement, but was "a gateway toward talks for denuclearization or a peace treaty" and such a treaty could "only be achieved after denuclearization reaches a certain irreversible level."

Moon's end-of-war proposal has faced feasibility questions from news outlets and the main opposition People Power Party, citing the current deadlocked inter-Korean relations and the fierce rivalry between Washington and Beijing.

Moon refuted these saying South and North Koreas had already agreed to pursue a trilateral or quadrilateral end-of-war declaration during a 2007 inter-Korean summit, and the involved countries ― the two Koreas, the U.S. and China ― have shared the need for such a declaration since then.

Regarding Kim Yo-jong's statement, a South Korean government official said, "Though a deeper analysis on the background of Kim's comments are required, we welcome the possibility of resuming talks."